ABOUT
THE BOOK

Paul Arimond is an army paramedic based in Afghanistan; it is 2003 and war rages around him. Yet Paul is more troubled by what he has left behind – a permanently damaged friend injured in a car crash in which Paul was driving. His enlistment is in part an attempt to escape his feelings of guilt, but also motivated by a fascination with Ambrosius Arimond, his 18th-century ancestor, a traveller and ornithologist who developed a theory of the language of birds.

Embroiled in the war and his own memories, Paul preoccupies himself with bird watching and keeping a diary of his sightings. The Language of Birds is punctuated by lyrical musings, deftly weaving passages on the travels of Ambrosius in the late 18th-century and the stories of those Paul has left behind at home. The result is a sad, meditative novel that poignantly reflects the constant and inescapable presence of the past.