November 11, 2011
“Miami, hurricanes, housing problems. These are just environmental touchstones around which this lush and poetic story turns. A child has run a
way, desperate to pay penance for the secret she carries. Five years later, as she approaches 18, we are dropped among the wreckage of the family she haunts. Such a beautifully written book about how hard it is to be—and to stay—a family.”—PNBA Awards Committee. Birds of Paradise is on the shortlist for the 2012 PNBA Book Awards.