May 19

May 19 All the Little Bird-Hearts

About the book

Author: Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow
Publisher: Algonquin Books

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

Buy and support indie bookstores (+ I earn a small commission):
Bookshop.org (print) | Libro.fm (audio)

My Review

All the Little Bird-Hearts was longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize, and I’m glad it was, because otherwise I probably would never have picked it up. But this was a book very much worth my time (and yours).

The main character, Sunday, is a lovable but lonely autistic single mother whose world (and relationship with her teenage daughter) is shaken up when glamorous, electrifying new neighbors move into the house next door. Throughout the book, there’s a dark tension that grows more and more ominous as you read, making it both deeply engaging and tenderly heartbreaking.

This is a refreshingly authentic portrayal of autism by an autistic author (amidst the “finest fiction” Booker-esque literary canon, anyway). I read an interview with the author where she talked about her intentional choice to set this in the ‘80s before our modern understanding of autism became prevalent, because Sunday was not in a privileged enough position to outwardly challenge biases. Setting it in the ‘80s allowed her to form a more autonomous understanding of herself. And I think this choice was extremely successful.

If you were on the fence about this one because it was longlisted but not shortlisted, do yourself a favor and pick it up anyway. It’s worth it!