ABOUT
THE BOOK

Set in an old farmhouse in Portugal, a house far enough from the Atlantic not to hear the breaking waves during a storm but near enough for the walls to be corroded by the salt in the air, The Painter of Birds explores the timeless themes of family, independence and the often painful experience of emigration.

With most members of her large family having left the hardship of life in this landscape of sand and stone for jobs in faraway places, a young woman struggles to piece together her past from the widely varying stories she is told. Left behind by a free-spirited, feckless father, a seducer with a rare gift for drawing, she is raised by her uncle who has married her mother. The only memories of her father’s two brief visits are the echoes of his footsteps on the stairs leading to her room. The only signs of him are letters from the widest reaches of the world, letters accompanied by brilliantly coloured drawings of exotic birds. The daughter longs for her father and, as she grows up, she is determined to find him and uncover the truth.