The Birds Began to Sing
- Auteur: Jeffrey Buchanan (Nieuw-Zeeland)
- Soort boek: Nieuw-Zeelandse roman
- Taal: Engels
- Uitgever: Text Publishing
- Verschijnt: 26 augustus 2025
- Omvang: 352 pagina’s
- Uitgave: paperback / ebook
- Prijs: $A 34,99
- Boek bestellen bij: Amazon / Bol
Jeffrey Buchanan The Birds Began to Sing review en recensie
- “Heartbreaking, hilarious and boldly written. A bona fide page-turner about the importance of living your own truth.” (Nigel Featherstone)
- “A novel filled with humanity, warmth and humour.” (Lloyd Jones)
Flaptekst van de roman van Jeffrey Buchanan de Nieuw-Zeelandse schrijver
Reggie was still missing after five days, and Gladys Harris was saying things about him that quivered in my mind, which now, four years later, I see as being that opening sentence leading me to this burden of what happened to Reggie Kingsley.
In the harbour city of New Plymouth in the 1960s there’s a fizz of seedy sexuality beneath a veneer of respectability. Godfrey’s world is the Balmoral Hotel his parents own, where visiting sailors drink and local fringe-dwellers congregate.
When Reggie, the openly gay barman, goes missing Godfrey senses something sinister. There’s a prevailing attitude of inevitability. Godfrey doesn’t get it, but he’s hungry to understand. Guided by his daytime-television and pulp-fiction detective heroes and a very active imagination, he attempts to solve the mystery—in the process stumbling into his own sexual adventures and discovering a new-found power in a perplexing adult world.
The Birds Began to Sing delves into a world of shadows, nods and unspoken understandings with a warmth and humour that make this novel a delight.
Jeffrey Buchanan has written five novels concerned primarily with LGBTQI+ issues, Sucking Feijoas being his first. He worked in international development for thirty years and lives with his husband on a remote stretch of beach in North Canterbury in New Zealand’s South Island.