Warm, Wise and Sharply Observed: Read Our Review of Birds of a Feather by Tricia Stringer

When three women are thrown together by unusual circumstances, ruffled feelings are just the beginning.

Eve has been a partner in a Wallaby Bay fishing fleet for as long as she can remember. Now they want her to sell – but what would her life be without work? She lives alone, her role on the town committee has been spiked by malicious gossip and she is incapacitated after surgery. For the first time in her life, she feels weak, vulnerable – old.

When her troubled god-daughter Julia arrives at Wallaby Bay, she seems to offer Eve a reprieve from her own concerns. But there is no such thing as plain sailing. Eve has another houseguest, the abrasive Lucy, who is helping her recuperate and does not look kindly on Julia’s desire for Eve’s attention.

But Lucy, too, has demons to battle and as each woman struggles to overcome their loss of place in the world, they start to realise that there may be more that holds them together than keeps them apart.

But will these birds of a feather truly be able to reinvent what family means? Or will the secrets and hurts of the past shatter their precarious hold on their new lives… and each other?

Bestselling, multi-award-winning author Tricia Stringer wrote a string of successful rural romances before trying her hand at general fiction. Her books, The Family Inheritance, The Model Wife, and Table for Eight, have sold their socks off, with her warm, wise, and witty style garnering her much praise and a lot of readers. Including this reader.

Her latest novel Birds of a Feather is a wise, sharply observed celebration of the life-changing power of female friendships. Stringer has thrown three very different women together, each with their own complexities, secrets, and baggage. Over the course of the novel, I felt like all three women had become my friends – a gift from Stringer. Another gift is her capacity to portray genuinely compelling characters across multiple generations. In this instance, her multigenerational story reflects how many of us reinvent what family is and choose who we call family.

A Tricia Stringer book makes me feel like all is okay in the world. Her empathy and warmth shine in this heartfelt story. ‘Masterful’ gets used a lot in reviews, but Stringer really is. She makes it look easy. With Birds of a Feather, she firmly takes her place as one of Australia’s most accomplished writers.

Buy a copy of Birds of a Feather here