In fifty-four short chapters, the author recounts memories of her mother, ponders her own Mormon faith, and contemplates the notion of absence in art and in our world. She deals with the question: What does it mean to have a voice?
In fifty-four short chapters, the author recounts memories of her mother, ponders her own Mormon faith, and contemplates the notion of absence in art and in our world. She deals with the question: What does it mean to have a voice?
"I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won't look at them until after I'm gone." This is what Terry Tempest Williams' mother, the matriarch of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah, told her a week before she died. It was a shock to Williams to discover that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock to discover that the three shelves of journals were all blank. In fifty-four short chapters, Williams recounts memories of her mother, ponders her own Mormon faith, and contemplates the notion of absence in art and in our world. When "Women Were Birds" is a carefully crafted kaleidoscope that keeps turning around the question: What does it mean to have a voice?
“Williams is the kind of writer who makes a reader feel that [her] voice might also, one day, be heard....She cancels out isolation: Connections are woven as you sit in your chair reading---between you and the place you live, between you and other readers, you and the writer. Without knowing how it happened, your sense of home is deepened.”
"This poetic memoir continues the work Williams began in Refuge....Williams explores her mother's identity - woman, wife, mother, and Mormon - as she continues to honour her memory....A lyrical and elliptical meditation on women, nature, family, and history." (The Boston Globe)"
Terry Tempest Williams is the award-winning author of many books, including Leap, An Unspoken Hunger, Refuge, and Finding Beauty in a Broken World. She divides her time between Castle Valley, Utah, and Moose, Wyoming
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