The Gravity of Birds, Tracy Guzeman
The Gravity of Birds, Tracy Guzeman
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
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The Gravity of Birds

Author: Tracy Guzeman

Narrator: Cassandra Campbell

Unabridged: 12 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/06/2013


Synopsis

A debut novel already destined to be a book club favorite. “With its deft interweaving of psychological complexity and riveting narrative momentum, with its gorgeous prose and poetic justice, The Gravity of Birds is about sibling rivalry, tragedies, and resurrections. And it’s irresistibly exquisite” (San Francisco Chronicle).

Forty-four years after the brilliant young painter, Thomas Bayber, first meets Alice and Natalie Kessler, Bayber unveils a never-before-seen work, Kessler Sisters—a provocative painting depicting the young Thomas, Alice, and Natalie. Bayber asks Dennis Finch, an art history professor, and Stephen Jameson, an eccentric young art authenticator, to sell the painting. But their task becomes more complicated when the artist requires that they first locate Alice and Natalie, who seem to have disappeared.

Told in alternating chapters that weave revelations about the sisters’ past with clues Finch and Jameson discover in the present, this story sets three characters on a collision course with their histories, showing how families tear themselves apart and then try to bind themselves together again, not always creating the same fabric. The Gravity of Birds “combines the drama of warring sisters, the mystery of a missing painting, and the sorrow of lost love into a haunting elegy that will…leave you breathless” (Tiffany Baker, author of The Little Giant of Aberdeen County).

About Tracy Guzeman

Tracy Guzeman lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work has appeared in Gulf Coast, Vestal Review, and Glimmer Train Stories. The Gravity of Birds is her first novel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Barbara on December 19, 2021

This novel begins a bit slow. I almost abandoned it. The characters are intriguing, so I continued, for which I’m glad I did. It picks up in the middle and becomes very engaging at the end. It’s a story of two sisters and the art world. I learned a lot about art appraisal and portrait/art forensics.......more

Goodreads review by Cassondra on March 17, 2013

Beautifully written. The prose lilts, dips, and soars like the flight of the birds whose images run through its pages. A haunting story of the power of love, that however flawed and mysterious, must indelibly change the fate of all who experience it. Every chapter left me aching for the next. The gr......more

Goodreads review by Robert on August 10, 2016

This novel tries to straddle the line between literary and commercial fiction. What the publishing gods have deemed upmarket fiction. Unfortunately for THE GRAVITY OF BIRDS, it probably tries a little too hard, and therefore doesn’t do either as effectively as if it just picked one and flew above th......more

Goodreads review by Melissa on May 18, 2015

Naturally, with the word “birds” in the title, I was drawn to this book. And with descriptions such as this, it certainly didn’t disappoint: A breeze stirred the branches, and she saw the brilliant yellow head and underparts standing out like petals of a sunflower against the backdrop of leaves; the......more

Goodreads review by Karen on September 26, 2013

I found out about 'The Gravity of Birds' by Tracy Guzeman through an email for new literary fiction from amazon.com. I was drawn to this particular book because of the title and the cover art. Reading the synopsis put me off because I have never been a fan of stories revolving around several charact......more