ridgewaygirl 's review for:

All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld

4.0

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Telling the story of Jake, a prickly, anti-social Australian woman, All the Birds, Singing moves back and forth between her present, where she owns a small farm on an isolated British island on which she raises sheep, to the near past, where she works as a shearer on a northern Australian sheep station, and the far past, when she became the woman that she is. This is a relatively short book, with each chapter taking place in a different time and place, with the chapters set in the past not necessarily following in chronological order. This could be confusing, but Wyld's writing, as well as the vast differences between each segment of her life, means that I was able to orient myself within a few sentences.

There is, it seems, a terrible secret in Jake's past, a secret that she's on the run from and while the book seems to be heading in the direction of that secret being both sordid and expected, Wyld refuses to do the predictable thing. There's also a looming danger in the woods on the outskirts of her island farm, with her sheep being killed, although it's only a few each month. Jake has ideas about what is lurking, but it's never entirely certain what is happening and what is imagined.

All the Birds, Singing is an inventive, well-written and compelling novel. It's not one that releases its answers easily and Wyld is telling only the story that needs to be told; there are no unnecessary scenes and some things are left ambiguous. I suspect I'll be thinking over this book for some time to come.