When the child he is supposed to capture is unlike anything he has ever seen – or been trained to expect – Peter must decide whether to go back empty handed or to accept Jamie’s pleas and take a chance on the fascinating yet unfathomable ‘bird child’. A perilous journey awaits the unusual trio who must rush away from the outskirts of the feared town of Belua and elude its inhabitants across an ancient forest and up remote mountains, or risk being spotted and hunt by them. Will the journey help them discover more about the bird child? Will they be welcomed back into HomeVillage, where the true brothers expect a familiar captured child just like them? Will the bird child finish breaking the close bond that used to exist between Peter and Jamie? A literary and haunting novel which explores our captivation with charismatic leaders and our discomfort with difference. Borrowing the central characters from Hugo Simberg’s cryptic painting The Wounded Angel and mobilising them in an allegorical tale inspired by the Venezuelan crisis and diaspora, this story of adventure, brotherhood and desperation asks: why do we follow our leaders and what are we willing to do to belong?

When the child he is supposed to capture is unlike anything he has ever seen – or been trained to expect – Peter must decide whether to go back empty handed or to accept Jamie’s pleas and take a chance on the fascinating yet unfathomable ‘bird child’. A perilous journey awaits the unusual trio who must rush away from the outskirts of the feared town of Belua and elude its inhabitants across an ancient forest and up remote mountains, or risk being spotted and hunt by them. Will the journey help them discover more about the bird child? Will they be welcomed back into HomeVillage, where the true brothers expect a familiar captured child just like them? Will the bird child finish breaking the close bond that used to exist between Peter and Jamie? A literary and haunting novel which explores our captivation with charismatic leaders and our discomfort with difference. Borrowing the central characters from Hugo Simberg’s cryptic painting The Wounded Angel and mobilising them in an allegorical tale inspired by the Venezuelan crisis and diaspora, this story of adventure, brotherhood and desperation asks: why do we follow our leaders and what are we willing to do to belong?