Bird in the Snow

"Bird in the Snow" follows twenty-four hours in the life of Birdie Waters, an elderly widow living alone.On the eve of burying her only son, she stays awake all night, examining old photographs, cherishing warm memories, and sometimes disturbed by uneasy ghosts from the past. She remembers her son and his growing up, and her beloved husband - a vet who married her because she could dance, despite the difference in their social class - and their wonderful life together.She recalls her son's tragic death, his failed romance, and Louise, who for a short while looked like the partner that might make her son happy.She remembers Hughie Donoghue a flute player whom she has known since childhood, and for whom she still harbours a delicate flame of intense but unspoken affection.In the morning, she goes to the funeral. When it is over, and all the mourners have dined in the local hotel, she returns alone to her own house, where each day is a kind of triumph, because she has survived a little longer."Bird in the Snow" is the story of an old woman whose ordinary life is full of drama, love and passion, though perhaps nobody knows it but herself, because only she remembers everything.This beautifully rendered narrative evokes the rural past of an Irish matriarch looking back over the way-stations and men in her life, summoning memory to redress her bereavement through a series of poignant vignettes in a powerful act of retrieval.