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Birds of a Lesser Paradise

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Birds of a Lesser Paradise
Stories  
By Megan Mayhew Bergman
This edition: eBook, 240 pages
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Exploring the way our choices and relationships are shaped by the menace and beauty of the natural world, Megan Mayhew Bergman’s powerful and heartwarming collection captures the surprising moments when the pull of our biology becomes evident, when love or fear collide with good sense, or when our attachment to an animal or wild place can’t be denied.

In “Housewifely Arts,” a single mother and her son drive hours to track down an African gray parrot that can mimic her deceased mother’s voice. A population-control activist faces the ultimate conflict between her loyalty to the environment and her maternal desire in “Yesterday’s Whales.” And in the title story, a lonely naturalist allows an attractive stranger to lead her and her aging father on a hunt for an elusive woodpecker.

As intelligent as they are moving, the stories in Birds of a Lesser Paradise are alive with emotion, wit, and insight into the impressive power that nature has over all of us. This extraordinary collection introduces a young writer of remarkable talent.
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“Birds of a Lesser Paradise is an astonishing debut collection, by a writer reminiscent of such greats as Alice Munro, Elizabeth Strout and even Chekhov. Expertly delivered, Bergman's stories bloom from the minutiae of life. They confirm the inescapable power that nature--and our own biology--has over us.”
-- Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants
“Megan Mayhew Bergman apparently possesses, all in one sensibility, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s love of a back-to-the-land self-sufficiency, Amy Hempel’s infinite tenderness towards animals, and Tillie Olsen’s fierce sense of the emotional intensities of motherhood. Birds of a Lesser Paradise features characters who, even understanding it as well as they do, want to mother the world, and their stories are rendered with dazzling compassion, intelligence, and grace.”
-- Jim Shepard, author of You Think That’s Bad
“A big-hearted collection of stories--each one a precise and compassionate study of human life, the changes and obstacles--all carefully housed under the miracles and marvels of nature. Megan Mayhew Bergman is a brilliantly gifted writer who recognizes and highlights life's fragilities in a way that will leave your heart aching while also finding those bits of hilarity and absurdity that bring uniqueness to each and every creature.”
-- Jill McCorkle, author of Going Away Shoes
“I predict that astronomers will soon be renaming the star Sirius to Megan Mayhew Bergman. Birds of a Lesser Paradise offers us a spectacular new voice in the world of American short fiction. The characters in these stories--each one--perform as beacons on who we are and how we should act, all without pretense or exhortation. This is a first-rate collection.”
-- George Singleton, author of The Half-Mammals of Dixie
"Bergman's excellent stories are hard-earned and well-honed. Her characters speak as if their very lives depend upon getting it right, getting it down, facing the toughest stuff that tumbles down with equal toughness and enduring resilience. A very fine and impressive debut."
-- Brad Watson, author of Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives
"Readers will be shocked, amazed, and always entertained by the work of this accomplished writer of short fiction."
-- Booklist
"A top-notch debut... that deserves big praise. The beginning, one suspects, of a fine career."
-- Kirkus
Local author Megan Bergman reading twice this weekend
North Adams Transcript, March 9, 2012
...Local author Megan Mayhew Bergman’s new short story collection “Birds of a Lesser Paradise.” (Supplied graphic) MANCHESTER -- Local author Megan Mayhew Bergman published a new collection of short stories this week ...
A Southern Writer Lands in Vermont and Best American Short Stories
Seven Days Vermont, March 7, 2012
...Before she moved to Shaftsbury in 2008, North Carolina-born Megan Mayhew Bergman thought of herself as a Southern writer. Now her life is about as quintessentially Vermont as it gets. She lives in an 1834 farmhouse — her veterinarian ...
Book review: 'Birds of a Lesser Paradise'
UW Daily Online, March 7, 2012
...Megan Mayhew Bergman’s debut story collection “Birds of a Lesser Paradise” opens with “Housewifely Arts,” about a woman taking her son on a road trip to search for an African ...
‘Girlchild,’ Tupelo Hassman’s Debut Novel
New York Times, February 17, 2012
...Rory is capable of fulfilling her grandmothers wish, despite the way both nature and nurture have failed her. Megan Mayhew Bergman’s first story collection, “Birds of a Lesser Paradise,” will be published next month ...
Girlchild
New York Times, February 17, 2012
...Rory is capable of fulfilling her grandmothers wish, despite the way both nature and nurture have failed her. Megan Mayhew Bergman’s first story collection, “Birds of a Lesser Paradise,” will be published next month ...
Brookline Booksmith Writers and Readers Series: February and March
Wicked Local Brookline, February 6, 2012
...tickets per customer by stopping in or calling 617-566-6660, starting March 12. Thursday, March 22 Lauren Groff and Megan Mayhew Bergman, “Arcadia” and “Birds of a Lesser Paradise” Groff is the bestselling author of “The Monsters ...