Into the Woods: The healing power of birds - Softcover

Innes, Helen Mae

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0473670445 ISBN 13: 9780473670443

Publisher: Piwaiwaka Press, 2023

Synopsis

I first noticed a grey warbler fledgling outside my window who couldn't get the tune quite right. He'd start singing, get a note wrong and falter, then try tentatively again. Like a child learning the recorder, I thought. 

   Like a child...

Into the Woods is a surprisingly joyful, hopeful little story about the power of nature, and specifically birds, to heal us when we are hurt. The narrator has lost a child and in the fog of grief that surrounds her she finds herself drawn to the birds of the New Zealand bush and their songs. She overcomes a phobia of birds to make connections with the wildlife around her and ultimately to make connections again with the people she loves. Beautifully written and honestly raw emotions make this a powerful read.

About this title

About the Author

Helen is a writer of fiction and non-fiction who usually lives in a house in Naenae, sometimes on a boat in Seaview, and hardly ever but with great enthusiasm in a yurt in Wainuiomata. She studied linguistics and psychology at Victoria University, then taught English as a second language for 20 years in Ireland, England, Japan, China, and New Zealand. She has travelled through 30 countries, mostly by train, and is good at studying a new language in the carriage before crossing the border, and forgetting it completely on the journey out. She's interested in cross cultural communication and dialects; especially subtle differences between speakers of the same language.

Edition details

• Publisher: Piwaiwaka Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0473670445
• ISBN 13: 9780473670443
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 80