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Bird of Passage
1960s Scotland. When Finn O’Malley is sent from Ireland to work at the potato harvest, he forms a close friendship with Kirsty Galbreath, the farmer’s red-headed grand-daughter. But Finn is damaged by a childhood so traumatic that he can only recover his memories slowly. What happened at the brutal Industrial School to which he was committed while still a little boy? For the sake of his sanity, Finn must try to find out why he was taken into care and what became of the mother he lost.
Time passes and Kirsty moves away. Only her ambitions as an artist can give her the fulfilment she seeks and the threads that have bound these two friends so closely together begin to unravel. But her work is tied up with her love for her magical island home and for Finn, who comes and goes like the corncrake, a summer visitor.
Many years later, India, a successful folk musician, tries to unravel the mysterious and tragic love story which has coloured her whole life.
She may find more than she bargained for.
Dealing sensitively with the appalling realities of state-sanctioned physical abuse and its aftermath, Bird of Passage is a powerful story of cruelty, loss and enduring love against all the odds.
Time passes and Kirsty moves away. Only her ambitions as an artist can give her the fulfilment she seeks and the threads that have bound these two friends so closely together begin to unravel. But her work is tied up with her love for her magical island home and for Finn, who comes and goes like the corncrake, a summer visitor.
Many years later, India, a successful folk musician, tries to unravel the mysterious and tragic love story which has coloured her whole life.
She may find more than she bargained for.
Dealing sensitively with the appalling realities of state-sanctioned physical abuse and its aftermath, Bird of Passage is a powerful story of cruelty, loss and enduring love against all the odds.
Kindle Edition
First published December 29, 2011
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About the author
Catherine Czerkawska
45 books41 followersI’m a novelist, historian and experienced professional playwright, living and working in Scotland.
I write warm, intelligent and grown-up stories - some historical, some contemporary and some a mixture of both. I have more than 100 hours of BBC radio drama to my name as well as many professional theatre productions.
My fiction and non-fiction was previously published by Saraband, now by Dyrock Publishing, and some of my plays by Nick Hern Books.
My fiction includes The Physic Garden, a Scottish historical novel about an early nineteenth century gardener, his love for weaver's daughter Jenny and his friendship with botanist Dr Thomas Brown. Set in Glasgow, this is a moving and engrossing story of friendship and betrayal.
The Jewel, published in May 2016 is a luscious historical novel, bringing to glorious life the dramatic years of Jean Armour and Robert Burns's courtship and their tempestuous, married life against a background simmering with political intrigue and turmoil. For Jean is a selection of poems, songs and letters written by the poet with Jean Armour in mind
The Curiosity Cabinet is set on the small fictional inner Hebridean island of Garve, and involves parallel stories, three hundred years apart. Henrietta Dalrymple is kidnapped and held on Garve by the fearsome laird, Manus McNeill, while in the present day, Alys returns to the island where she spent childhood holidays, and renews an old friendship. While Henrietta must decide who she can trust, Alys must earn the trust of the man she loves. But for both women, the tug of motherhood will finally influence their decisions.
The Posy Ring set on the same small fictional Hebridean island as the Curiosity Cabinet, is (almost) a sequel to that novel, now published by Dyrock Publishing.
My books, fiction and non-fiction, are available in paperback and as eBooks on Amazon.
I’ve held Creative Writing fellowships and residencies and spent four years as Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at the University of the West of Scotland. I enjoy giving readings and talks about all aspects of my work and love chatting to my readers so please don't be shy about contacting me.
I also collect and deal in antiques, mainly textiles, in my spare time - quite often they find their way into my fiction.
I write warm, intelligent and grown-up stories - some historical, some contemporary and some a mixture of both. I have more than 100 hours of BBC radio drama to my name as well as many professional theatre productions.
My fiction and non-fiction was previously published by Saraband, now by Dyrock Publishing, and some of my plays by Nick Hern Books.
My fiction includes The Physic Garden, a Scottish historical novel about an early nineteenth century gardener, his love for weaver's daughter Jenny and his friendship with botanist Dr Thomas Brown. Set in Glasgow, this is a moving and engrossing story of friendship and betrayal.
The Jewel, published in May 2016 is a luscious historical novel, bringing to glorious life the dramatic years of Jean Armour and Robert Burns's courtship and their tempestuous, married life against a background simmering with political intrigue and turmoil. For Jean is a selection of poems, songs and letters written by the poet with Jean Armour in mind
The Curiosity Cabinet is set on the small fictional inner Hebridean island of Garve, and involves parallel stories, three hundred years apart. Henrietta Dalrymple is kidnapped and held on Garve by the fearsome laird, Manus McNeill, while in the present day, Alys returns to the island where she spent childhood holidays, and renews an old friendship. While Henrietta must decide who she can trust, Alys must earn the trust of the man she loves. But for both women, the tug of motherhood will finally influence their decisions.
The Posy Ring set on the same small fictional Hebridean island as the Curiosity Cabinet, is (almost) a sequel to that novel, now published by Dyrock Publishing.
My books, fiction and non-fiction, are available in paperback and as eBooks on Amazon.
I’ve held Creative Writing fellowships and residencies and spent four years as Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at the University of the West of Scotland. I enjoy giving readings and talks about all aspects of my work and love chatting to my readers so please don't be shy about contacting me.
I also collect and deal in antiques, mainly textiles, in my spare time - quite often they find their way into my fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 16, 2012
Finn from Ballyhaunis; Cairistiona of Dunshee: a love story for the bards.
This quiet book dedicated to the author's beloved Honora Flynn from Ballyhounis, near Knock in the heart of Connaught, tells an important story about Ireland, one we tend to forget when we wax romantic about the wee people and the Guinness and the Blarney Stone. It hangs out Ireland's dirty laundry for all to see in the context of a powerful story of two people, inseparable in spirit, obsessed with each other, truly destined for each other: Finn and Kirsty.
It tells the story of dislocation, what happens to those left behind, the effect of the Magdalene Laundries on real people and the horrid schools run by the Christian Brothers. I admire their New Irish Grammar and my copy is worn ragged, but what they did to those children in their keep was unforgiveable.
All of the characters are captivating and well-developed - they are all people I have known in some form. That is a tribute to the author - the characters are so well-wrought as to merge with real people in my memory. There are Max, India, Flora, Alasdair, Nicolas, Father Kevin, Aunty Beatie from the present but also Mary, Grania, and Francis reaching for Finn from the past. And the integral indescribably beautiful fiddle music of Ireland and Scotland takes center stage too, but all are overshadowed by Finn and Kirsty, everpresent.
The "iron age hill fort" becomes the lodestar for the two "so closely intertwined it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began" against the backdrop of the sea, the whins and the blue blue sky. It becomes the anchor for their aspirations and the place where their spirits return to commune.
Kirsty's daughter says: ‘I hope to God I never fall in love like that.’ ‘Most people go through life looking for that kind of passion. Reading about it. Hankering after it.’ ‘Then they’re crazy. And isn’t it lucky that most of us never find it? It destroys you.’
"At the funeral service, India played the fiddle, her great grandad’s old fiddle, to which she had fallen heir, filling the kirk with the most glorious, heartrending sound. She played a lament, her grief stricken and gravely beautiful face bent over the instrument. The music would have wrung tears from a stone. That was what everyone said afterwards, curiously comforted by the perception that they were in the presence of an uncommon talent "
When someone asks me "what is this book about?" I will say: it is about "imposing shape and meaning on the chaos" of life and death; but more particularly about life and death in Ireland and the Hebrides; it is about self-denial and about self-indulgence; it is about comfort and discomfort; it is about tea and sympathy; it is about the corncrake and it is about music. I will say it is the story of Finn and Kirsty, who "danced in the morning when the world was begun and danced in the moon and the stars and the sun."
This quiet book dedicated to the author's beloved Honora Flynn from Ballyhounis, near Knock in the heart of Connaught, tells an important story about Ireland, one we tend to forget when we wax romantic about the wee people and the Guinness and the Blarney Stone. It hangs out Ireland's dirty laundry for all to see in the context of a powerful story of two people, inseparable in spirit, obsessed with each other, truly destined for each other: Finn and Kirsty.
It tells the story of dislocation, what happens to those left behind, the effect of the Magdalene Laundries on real people and the horrid schools run by the Christian Brothers. I admire their New Irish Grammar and my copy is worn ragged, but what they did to those children in their keep was unforgiveable.
All of the characters are captivating and well-developed - they are all people I have known in some form. That is a tribute to the author - the characters are so well-wrought as to merge with real people in my memory. There are Max, India, Flora, Alasdair, Nicolas, Father Kevin, Aunty Beatie from the present but also Mary, Grania, and Francis reaching for Finn from the past. And the integral indescribably beautiful fiddle music of Ireland and Scotland takes center stage too, but all are overshadowed by Finn and Kirsty, everpresent.
The "iron age hill fort" becomes the lodestar for the two "so closely intertwined it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began" against the backdrop of the sea, the whins and the blue blue sky. It becomes the anchor for their aspirations and the place where their spirits return to commune.
Kirsty's daughter says: ‘I hope to God I never fall in love like that.’ ‘Most people go through life looking for that kind of passion. Reading about it. Hankering after it.’ ‘Then they’re crazy. And isn’t it lucky that most of us never find it? It destroys you.’
"At the funeral service, India played the fiddle, her great grandad’s old fiddle, to which she had fallen heir, filling the kirk with the most glorious, heartrending sound. She played a lament, her grief stricken and gravely beautiful face bent over the instrument. The music would have wrung tears from a stone. That was what everyone said afterwards, curiously comforted by the perception that they were in the presence of an uncommon talent "
When someone asks me "what is this book about?" I will say: it is about "imposing shape and meaning on the chaos" of life and death; but more particularly about life and death in Ireland and the Hebrides; it is about self-denial and about self-indulgence; it is about comfort and discomfort; it is about tea and sympathy; it is about the corncrake and it is about music. I will say it is the story of Finn and Kirsty, who "danced in the morning when the world was begun and danced in the moon and the stars and the sun."
December 24, 2012
I loved this novel, set in the Hebrides. I don't usually make comparisons with other books, but I believe the author has not repudiated a comparison with 'Wuthering Heights', and that is good enough for me. The overwhelming, lifelong love between incomer Finn, the teenaged 'tattie howker' over from Ireland to work on the potato harvest, and Kirsty, the farmer's granddaughter has the same power over the reader. They are parted, then find one another again, but their second chance of happiness is short lived. The novel opens with Kirsty's daughter India visiting Finn in his island home that was also Kirsty's childhood home and finding him all alone, a ruin of a man with a powerful gift for her. From that arresting beginning, we find out what Finn means to India.
This is a beautiful and moving book. The landscape comes alive in all its moods, savage and beautiful. The realities of island life are described with great skill. Kirsty is an artist who draws on the island for her inspiration and cannot thrive elsewhere. Finn comes into her life and the life of the island trailing a tragic past of which he has mostly suppressed the memory. Set in my lifetime, even so recently their relationship defied expectations that they could be together.
This book stirred up a whole range of emotions in me, including anger and outrage at the harshness of the social dispensation in Ireland that led to Finn losing his family and his institutionalisation in an Industrial School, his mother in a Magadalene Laundry - and some sense of shame that this was happening in my lifetime. His damaged childhood marks Finn through his life, threatening his happiness with Kirsty. It is a powerful and utterly believable background for a unique love story. Once again, Catherine Czerkawska has both delighted and moved me with her beautifully crafted fiction.
This is a beautiful and moving book. The landscape comes alive in all its moods, savage and beautiful. The realities of island life are described with great skill. Kirsty is an artist who draws on the island for her inspiration and cannot thrive elsewhere. Finn comes into her life and the life of the island trailing a tragic past of which he has mostly suppressed the memory. Set in my lifetime, even so recently their relationship defied expectations that they could be together.
This book stirred up a whole range of emotions in me, including anger and outrage at the harshness of the social dispensation in Ireland that led to Finn losing his family and his institutionalisation in an Industrial School, his mother in a Magadalene Laundry - and some sense of shame that this was happening in my lifetime. His damaged childhood marks Finn through his life, threatening his happiness with Kirsty. It is a powerful and utterly believable background for a unique love story. Once again, Catherine Czerkawska has both delighted and moved me with her beautifully crafted fiction.
January 2, 2013
When I was a teenager, Wuthering Heights was my favorite book. However, when I went back to it as an adult, my opinion had changed a bit. I still loved the wildness of it and the idea of a love that could last beyond the grave. But I could no longer stomach Heathcliff and his cruelty. In Bird of Passage I have found a retelling of my old favorite which has brought back the magic. Instead of Yorkshire, the setting is the equally wild and even more remote Hebrides. The lovers, Kirsty and Finn, are more sympathetic than their Wuthering Heights counterparts. Finn's story is especially compelling because although like Heathcliffe he is rough, we know the reason for his damaged personality. I do not want to reveal too much about this book because I want readers to discover this beautifully haunting story for themselves.
November 20, 2012
This is one of those times where I wish I had another star, or feel the need to go back and remove stars from other books just to show how special this one is.
I finished the book some days ago but am still thinking about Kirsty & Finn.
I loved it, everything about it - the setting and it's descriptions - you could completely understand how the place was part of Kirsty and always going to be.
I loved the story and the way it spans over Kirsty growing up and older. It's hard to read in parts, you hope for happy endings after the tough things that happen but you are already given the clue at the start that it not what you are going to get.
A book that stays with you and will for some time.
I finished the book some days ago but am still thinking about Kirsty & Finn.
I loved it, everything about it - the setting and it's descriptions - you could completely understand how the place was part of Kirsty and always going to be.
I loved the story and the way it spans over Kirsty growing up and older. It's hard to read in parts, you hope for happy endings after the tough things that happen but you are already given the clue at the start that it not what you are going to get.
A book that stays with you and will for some time.
October 2, 2024
Some novels are meant to be read slowly, with each chapter being savoured as the plot unfolds, characters develop and back stories gradually revealed. "Bird of Passage" by Catherine Czerkawska is one such book. On one level it is a love story of two people from very different backgrounds: Finn O'Malley, a young Irish boy who spends each summer harvesting potatoes on a Scottish Hebridean island and Kirsty Galbreath who lives on the island with her mother the widowed Isabel and grandfather Alasdair who owns one of the farms Finn works on and who befriends him.
When we first meet the young Finn, he is on the ferry from Ireland to Scotland along with a friend Francis, both of them feeling the cold. Finn is taciturn and gives the impression the only person he cares for is Francis, a sickly and underweight boy. That is until he meets the outgoing and exuberant Kirsty.
But there is so much more to this novel. We discover that Finn was a pupil at an abusive Industrial school after being forcibly removed from his home and the care of his mother, who herself was sent to one of the infamous Magdalene laundries. Gradually, we learn more about Finn's earlier life and that of his mother, with each revelation helping us understand why he has become the boy and then the man he is. We begin to understand his anger, his silences, his difficulty in trusting others and his guilt. And towards the end of the novel we discover one final and shocking revelation from his past.
We learn of Finn's and Kirsty's lives both together and during separations. We share their frustrations and misunderstandings, we are disturbed by their missteps, we yearn for them to find a way through the barriers. We smile and laugh with them, we cry with them, we feel their anger, we are with them at their most passionate. And sometimes this reader felt he wanted to intervene while being impotent to do so. We also feel for those around them, in particular Nicolas who himself loves Kirsty. The wealthy and privileged Nicolas is the sort of character I rarely feel sympathy for and it is an indication of the quality of the writing that the author elicits our empathy for him. There is much heartbreak but there is also plenty of love.
I didn't want this novel to end and its principal characters will continue to live with me. I've read several of Catherine's books - her fiction and her poetry - and always enjoyed them. But this might well be her greatest achievement thus far, yet - despite her long record as a successful novelist and dramatist - she couldn't find a publisher who was interested in this book: surely an indication of the poor state of our publishing industry. So she has published and distributed it herself. I am glad she did.
When we first meet the young Finn, he is on the ferry from Ireland to Scotland along with a friend Francis, both of them feeling the cold. Finn is taciturn and gives the impression the only person he cares for is Francis, a sickly and underweight boy. That is until he meets the outgoing and exuberant Kirsty.
But there is so much more to this novel. We discover that Finn was a pupil at an abusive Industrial school after being forcibly removed from his home and the care of his mother, who herself was sent to one of the infamous Magdalene laundries. Gradually, we learn more about Finn's earlier life and that of his mother, with each revelation helping us understand why he has become the boy and then the man he is. We begin to understand his anger, his silences, his difficulty in trusting others and his guilt. And towards the end of the novel we discover one final and shocking revelation from his past.
We learn of Finn's and Kirsty's lives both together and during separations. We share their frustrations and misunderstandings, we are disturbed by their missteps, we yearn for them to find a way through the barriers. We smile and laugh with them, we cry with them, we feel their anger, we are with them at their most passionate. And sometimes this reader felt he wanted to intervene while being impotent to do so. We also feel for those around them, in particular Nicolas who himself loves Kirsty. The wealthy and privileged Nicolas is the sort of character I rarely feel sympathy for and it is an indication of the quality of the writing that the author elicits our empathy for him. There is much heartbreak but there is also plenty of love.
I didn't want this novel to end and its principal characters will continue to live with me. I've read several of Catherine's books - her fiction and her poetry - and always enjoyed them. But this might well be her greatest achievement thus far, yet - despite her long record as a successful novelist and dramatist - she couldn't find a publisher who was interested in this book: surely an indication of the poor state of our publishing industry. So she has published and distributed it herself. I am glad she did.
October 1, 2017
I got this as a freebie for my Kindle in 2012 but have only just got round to reading it as part of an exercise to work my way through all the hundreds of books I've downloaded. I enjoyed the book a great deal. I particularly liked the Scottish island setting, and the idea of the events of the past forming future generations. I also spotted that it appears to be an updating of Wuthering Heights so enjoyed picking up the common plot points between the two novels. I read it quite quickly but it has stayed with me for a while afterwards which to me is the sign of quality work.
April 17, 2012
This is a really beautiful book. It is set in the Western Isles in Scotland and follows the story of Finn - an Irish 'tattie howker' who comes over as a boy every summer to the island where Kirsty and her mother and grandfather live, and the enduring relationship between himself and Kirsty. It explores the wider impact of institutionalised cruelty and abuse and how this affects people as children right through to adulthood, and can fundamentally shape their lives, as well as the character of a nation. I thought the characters of Finn and Kirsty - and occasionally Alasdair - were really well drawn and unique - I could almost know them. The other characters were just peripheral to the story and so not really fleshed out. I could see the reason for this but occasionally it was frustrating. One thing I couldn't understand was Kirsty's apparent subservience to Nicholas. For such a strong-willed character, it seemed completely at odds for instance to agree to sell her father's home without a fight, to send her children to boarding school without really thinking too much about it etc. Nicholas was painted as a bit of a wet blanket so this did surprise me. But I thought perhaps Kirsty felt tied and dependant on him because of his money / ownership of the estate and how this was tied in to her father's affairs.
The book is beautifully written, with really stunning turns of phrases. Some of it was truly breathtaking and I found myself (on my e-reader) underlining many passages for future reading because they were so great! One such passage is this:
"It was as though her grandfather had conjured up images from the sea and the land around them. It was a kind of magic; he took the memories of the island, the sticks and stones, the shells and feathers and water, and transformed them into words. It was an old skill and few could manage it like Alasdair."
I thought this applied to the author, Catherine Czerkawska herself. Few can paint images with words and it is a great skill. I really look forward to reading more of her work.
The book is beautifully written, with really stunning turns of phrases. Some of it was truly breathtaking and I found myself (on my e-reader) underlining many passages for future reading because they were so great! One such passage is this:
"It was as though her grandfather had conjured up images from the sea and the land around them. It was a kind of magic; he took the memories of the island, the sticks and stones, the shells and feathers and water, and transformed them into words. It was an old skill and few could manage it like Alasdair."
I thought this applied to the author, Catherine Czerkawska herself. Few can paint images with words and it is a great skill. I really look forward to reading more of her work.
November 10, 2013
Many readers who've never read Wuthering Heights have images of Heathcliff, a brooding Byronic hero, wandering the misted heaths and pining for his lost love. I know--because I'm one of them. But I took heart from one review which called this lovely novel not a cloning but a re-imagining. And what's great writing, after all, but brilliant fresh spins on the classics? How many times has The Count of Monte Cristo been retold or-reimagined? Think: A man falsely imprisoned or ruined escapes or disappears...then returns many years later, powerful and rich, to destroy his enemies. But new writers continue to serve up new riffs and the story continues to hold. Here, Catherine Czerkawska shows how well she knows her business: updating the themes and the setting in a take that is accessible to fans of the original and those who haven't read it.
Other reviewers have written about the powerful back story too: Finn/Heathcliff's childhood torture by the Irish Christian Brothers is as horrifying in its way as My Twelve Years as a Slave. His doomed love for Kirsty will break most readers' hearts. And his triumphant return on a motorbike to reclaim his lost love is magnificently done.
What amazed me the most, though, has not been discussed: the way this author handles time. Gore Vidal once wrote that the best writers stand apart on that point precisely. In a style that seamlessly blends summary and drama, we're given a tale for the ages while we're taken through the years. And as they pass, sometimes on a single page, we--just like the characters--are surprised by the speed of the passing. At the same time, we're enriched by a sense of the procession.
Bring out the Kleenex and have a good cry while watching a master at work.
Other reviewers have written about the powerful back story too: Finn/Heathcliff's childhood torture by the Irish Christian Brothers is as horrifying in its way as My Twelve Years as a Slave. His doomed love for Kirsty will break most readers' hearts. And his triumphant return on a motorbike to reclaim his lost love is magnificently done.
What amazed me the most, though, has not been discussed: the way this author handles time. Gore Vidal once wrote that the best writers stand apart on that point precisely. In a style that seamlessly blends summary and drama, we're given a tale for the ages while we're taken through the years. And as they pass, sometimes on a single page, we--just like the characters--are surprised by the speed of the passing. At the same time, we're enriched by a sense of the procession.
Bring out the Kleenex and have a good cry while watching a master at work.
April 16, 2012
This was the powerful and sensitive story of Finn, a young boy sent to an island off the coast of Scotland to work in the potato harvest of a small tenant farmer. It is however, a story that deals with the shocking physical and mental abuse in the 1960s industrial schools of Ireland and how literally children could be taken from their families in an attempt at the moral conformity of the day, and for the advancement of the church.
While there Finn forms a lifelong relationship with the farmers granddaugther. A vibrant and caring girl who has no idea what a harsh environment her young friend has come from. Finn is taken under the farmers wing in a vain attempt to nurture and build confidence in the young boy. But Finn struggles with his ability to accept love and give it in return and as the story unfolds he must try to come to terms with his past and try and dispell the guilt he feels about being taken from his mother.
This would be a wonderful book for a book club discussion. There are many questions answered but there are also many more that the author has used to build the characters in the book and it is interesting to watch these two children grow and mature and how there later lives are still reflections of their past. An excellent read.
While there Finn forms a lifelong relationship with the farmers granddaugther. A vibrant and caring girl who has no idea what a harsh environment her young friend has come from. Finn is taken under the farmers wing in a vain attempt to nurture and build confidence in the young boy. But Finn struggles with his ability to accept love and give it in return and as the story unfolds he must try to come to terms with his past and try and dispell the guilt he feels about being taken from his mother.
This would be a wonderful book for a book club discussion. There are many questions answered but there are also many more that the author has used to build the characters in the book and it is interesting to watch these two children grow and mature and how there later lives are still reflections of their past. An excellent read.
July 8, 2012
A great fictional story that becomes so " real " and leaves you deep in thought once you finish ....Our childhood really does effect who we become as adults , there really are those who love us despite those childhood effects , and love can be forever ! I highly recommend this book ;-)
May 15, 2012
Beautifully written. One of those books where you need to take a breath afterwards; before going on to something new.
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February 25, 2016kindle 322
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews