When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

<p><b></b><br><b>NATIONAL BESTSELLER</b><br><b>A <i>Kansas City Star</i> Best Book of the Year</b><br><b></b><br><b>&quot;Brilliant, meditative, and full of surprises, wisdom, and wonder.&quot; -- Ann Lamott, author of <i>Imperfect Birds</i></b> <br>&quot;I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won't look at them until after I'm gone.&quot; This is what Terry Tempest Williams's mother, the matriarch of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah, told her a week before she died. It was a shock to Williams to discover that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as it was to discover that the three shelves of journals were all blank. In fifty-four short chapters, Williams recounts memories of her mother, ponders her own faith, and contemplates the notion of absence and presence art and in our world. <i>When Women Were Birds</i> is a carefully crafted kaleidoscope that keeps turning around the question: What does it mean to have a voice?</p>