We’re excited to share that our May Book Club selection is the essay collection Migratory Birds by Mariana Oliver, translated by Julia Sanches and forthcoming from Transit Books on June 22, but available to Rumpus Book Club members in just a few weeks!
In her prize-winning debut, Mexican essayist Mariana Oliver trains her gaze on migration in its many forms, moving between real cities and other more inaccessible territories: language, memory, pain, desire, and the body. With an abiding curiosity and poetic ease, Oliver leads us through the underground city of Cappadocia, explores the vicissitudes of a Berlin marked by historical fracture, recalls a shocking childhood exodus, and recreates the intimacy of the spaces we inhabit. Blending criticism, reportage, and a travel writing all her own, Oliver presents a brilliant collection of essays that asks us what it means to leave the familiar behind and make the unfamiliar our own.
“Oliver debuts with a thoughtful, roving meditation on migration, language, and home. In intimate pieces studded with references to history and literature, Oliver ponders such topics as the tug of home and the consequences of dislocation… Fans of lyrical essays will enjoy this literary global odyssey.” – Publishers Weekly
“Essays haunted by echoes and shadows… In the third entry of the publisher’s Undelivered Lectures series, Mexican-born essayist Oliver debuts with a collection of 10 graceful pieces that include meditations on place, language, exile, and memory.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Evincing reverence for language, the essays of Migratory Birds take a fascinating tour around the world, showing how historical events affect the way we learn words.” – Foreword Reviews, Starred Review
Subscribe to the Rumpus Book Club by May 15 to join us in reading Migratory Birds, culminating in an exclusive online discussion with author Mariana Oliver and translator Julia Sanches about the book!
