The Birds of Opulence

By Crystal Wilkinson,

Book cover of The Birds of Opulence

Book description

From the critically acclaimed, award-winning author of Blackberries, Blackberries and Water Street comes an astonishing new novel. A lyrical exploration of love and loss, The Birds of Opulence centers on several generations of women in a bucolic southern black township as they live with and sometimes surrender to madness.

The…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Birds of Opulence as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Wilkinson writes so sparely and lyrically, and yet with a bluntness that’s palpable.

It reads almost as magic realism, but the flights of fancy are really manifestations of mental illness, so skillfully put to the page. This is a tale of women and childbearing, of oppression and poverty. A haunting, painful tale, to be sure, but hope finds its way through it.  

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