OH MY GOD, this story reached right in and broke me open. Such beauty and hope in the midst of such devastation and heartbreak. It was honestly a book I could not put down until I couldn't keep my eyes open - I read it in three long sittings over three nights. My heart plunged into the depths of despair with Franny and the other characters, but then soared like the birds Franny and Ennis and the crew of the Saghani were following. There was a deep warning of what could very well be our future without animals, but this was not a political or dystopian or socially moralistic story; it was deeply personal and showed just how bone-deep the larger issues of the world can affect individual people. It was also a story about migrations of different sorts - not just the usual concept of migrations moving from place to place: migration of one's ideology, of one's spiritual nature, of one's sense of belonging or not, of even one's sense of what the past and present and future really are, a migration of desperation, despair, pessimism, and grief to one of hope, and possibilities, and, ultimately, soul-deep love.

This is a book I will not soon, if ever, forget. I cried tears of grief and then tears of joy in many places, sometimes at the same time. And the writing - ah, the writing was sublime and poetic and lyrical. I am in awe of McConaghy's sense of language and rhythm and story and myth. I felt this story deep within my heart and soul and bones - as I said at the beginning of this review - it broke me open and took residence and made me FEEL both grief and elation.