Evening Chorus

Helen Humphreys is a Canadian novelist and poet. She was born in London, England, and now lives in Kingston, Ontario. Humphreys' first novel, Leaving Earth, was a New York Times Notable Book in 1998 and won the City of Toronto Book Award. She is also the author of The Reinvention of Love, True Story, and The Evening Chorus.

A poised, lyrical novel about the griefs of war, written with poetic intensity of observation -- Helen Dunmore The Evening Chorus serenades people brutally marked by war yet enduring to live - and relish - the tiny pleasures of another day. With her trademark prose - exquisitely limpid - Humphreys convinces us of the birdlike strength of the powerless. -- Emma Donoghue In The Evening Chorus the interventions of war, and the resulting human tragedies, play out against a natural world at once remote, alien and ultimately redemptive. The novel has a crystalline quality about it - it's clear and complex and self-contained. It sparkles. -- Jo Baker, author of Longbourn If there's a writer of English prose with a more profound connection to the natural world and to the subtleties of human love and sorrow than Helen Humphreys, I don't know who it is. The Evening Chorus is rich with her particular gift for symphonic cadences and beautiful imagery that moves a story forward with the momentum of a big train gathering speed. This riveting novel is a song. Listen. -- Richard Bausch, author of The Last Good Time, the forthcoming Before, During, After and others Humphreys has a gift for complex characterization, which she renders in a few terse strokes. The Boston Globe Humphreys has an impeccable command of imagery, and her prose finds strength in its subtlety. Publishers Weekly A heartbreaking yet redemptive story about loss and survival surrounding a British prisoner of war during World War II and the wife he barely got to know before his capture ... Humphreys deserves more recognition for the emotional intensity and evocative lyricism of her seemingly straightforward prose and for her ability to quietly squirrel her way into the reader's heart. Kirkus A lyrical narrative about loss, love and the natural world. -- Matilda Bathurst Country Life A lyrical novel about war and the natural world and their effects on human beings. Beautifully written, the story it tells about the secrets within relationships, some expected, others surprising, makes this novel a quiet pleasure. Diva Poignantly explores the sorrows of war and consolations of nature ... A story of heartbreak and hope, it unfolds against a mesmerizingly described natural world. -- Eithne Farry Mail on Sunday Humphreys has spun an atmospheric yarn, and her descriptions of flora and fauna always engage. -- Stephanie Cross Daily Mail An uplifting novel that explores the fragility of wartime lives and the awe-inspiring strength of survivors. -- Helena Gumley-Mason The Lady