Starling Days: A Novel

The moving new novel by the author of Harmless Like You, a New York Times Book Review Editors Choice and NPR Great ReadOn their first date, Mina told Oscar that she was bisexual, vegetarian, and on meds. He married her anyhow. A challenge to be met. She had low days, sure, but manageable. But now, maybe not so much . . . Mina is standing on the George Washington Bridge late at night, staring over the edge, when a patrol car drives up. She tries to convince the policeman shes not about to jump, but he doesnt believe her. Oscar is called to pick her up.With the idea of leaving New York for Londona place for Mina to learn the floorplan of this sadnessOscar arranges a move. In London, Mina, a classicist, tries grappling with her mental health issues by making lists. Of WOMEN WHO SURVIVEDPenelope, Psyche, Leda. Iphigenia, but only in one of the tellings. Of things that make her HAPPYenamel coffee cups. But what else? She at last finds a beam of light in Phoebe, and friendship and attraction blossom until Oscar and Minas complicated love is tested.A gorgeously wrought novel, variously about love, mythology, mental illness, Japanese beer, and the times we need to seek out milder psychological climates, Rowan Hisayo Buchanans Starling Dayswritten in exquisite prose rich with lightly ironic empathyis a complex and compelling work of fiction by a singularly gifted young writer.