The American novelist William Maxwell was fond of saying that he could never get enough of other people’s lives. There is a strong sense of that healthy curiosity in Eva Meijer’s brilliant novelization of Gwendolen (Len) Howard’s life story. Howard was the Jane Goodall of birds before Jane. In 1938 Howard opened her cottage in Ditchling, England, to study the local birds. She has been forgotten except in esoteric circles, so Meijer is right to breathe life into her biography after so many years. An implied question in Meijer’s book seems to be about what makes a person. What elements from Howard’s early life contributed to her separation from the human world and immersion in a natural aviary? In line with philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, how does one arise from the circumstances of life to create their true character? The book juxtaposes and combines differing realms: inside/outside; human/animal; music/silence....

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