The Lord God Bird

June 1, 2009
Lord God, what a bird! people exclaimed at the sight of an ivory-billed woodpecker. The magnificent Lord God Bird flourished in the swampy forests of the South until the tall trees were cut down. Last spotted in 1944, it was believed extinct until a headline-grabbing encounter in 2004. Hill follows his Edgar-finalist Robbies Wife (2007), with a brilliantly imagined, hair-raising tale about the spell cast by this fabled creature, reaching back to 1944 when Jake, a bird-struck 19-year-old from the Chicago area, heads south to search for the ivory-billed woodpecker with Robin, his tough little girlfriend. Their immersion in the primeval wilderness is, by turns, ludicrous, erotic, and mythic as Robin arrays herself with clay and feathers to achieve a fate-tempting metamorphosis. Once this odd bird attracts the attention of redneck hunters, the lovers become fugitives, finding sanctuary witha black mandeeply attuned totheforcesof the bayou. Hill himself exhibits extraordinary powers in this blazing improvisation on the storyof Eden. A breathtakingdrama of natures mercurial glory and humankinds grim folly.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)