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All the Little Bird-Hearts

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All the Little Bird-Hearts

By: Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow
Narrated by: Rose Akroyd
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About this listen

An unforgettable literary debut exploring motherhood, vulnerability, and the way the world closes ranks against those it considers to be different.

I lived for and loved a bird-heart that summer; I only knew it afterwards.

Sunday Forrester lives with her sixteen-year-old daughter, Dolly, in the house she grew up in. She does things more carefully than most people. On quiet days, she must eat only white foods. Her etiquette handbook guides her through confusing social situations, and to escape, she turns to her treasury of Sicilian folklore. The one thing very much out of her control is Dolly - her clever, headstrong daughter, now on the cusp of leaving home.

Into this carefully ordered world step Vita and Rollo, a couple who move in next door, disarm Sunday with their charm, and proceed to deliciously break just about every rule in Sunday's book. Soon they are in and out of each others' homes, and Sunday feels loved and accepted like never before. But beneath Vita and Rollo's polish lies something else, something darker. For Sunday has precisely what Vita has always wanted for herself: a daughter of her own.

©2023 Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow (P)2023 Headline Publishing Group Ltd Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Heartfelt

Critic Reviews

"What a glorious, unforgettable character Vita is. And I loved Sunday's voice too, so unique, right from the off. It showed me things about autism that will stay with me. A genuinely valuable book, but more importantly I enjoyed being inside its world." (Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the Barley)

"Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow's is a distinct and poetic new voice. This novel about the complex desires behind our closest relationships is undercut with the darkness of Sicilian folklore: the fisherman who promises away his child; the lover who is a wolf; a caged magpie; burning fields." (Clare Pollard, poet and author of Delphi)

"Funny, lyrical, deft and devastating. Full of longing and love." (Amy Sackville, author of Painter to the King)
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A beautifully accessible insight into the neurodiverse mind. An intricately beautiful and nuanced novel with themes of familial love, friendship, class, prejudice and trauma with psychological acuity and wit. Long listed for The Booker Prize in 2023, this is a debut novel by an author to watch. I loved it!

Lyrical and poignant

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I loved Sunday, her world & just how different yet same and human her world is. Beautifully written

The insight into someone’s mind so meticulously done.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.