WILD BIRD

A story of growth and survivorship during a time of plague.

When a boy named Owen finds her cold and starving in the hollow of an old tree, the girl—age 12, or thereabouts—can’t remember her own name. Owen and his sea captain father call her Rype. The only survivor of a plague epidemic in her Norwegian village, she begins to recover her memories while tending the sailors, who also begin to die of the dreaded disease. But after Owen’s father succumbs, the remaining men, fearing witchcraft, strand Rype and Owen on a desolate piece of shore. As the two attempt to find a way to return to Owen’s home in England, they meet up with a trio of troubadours—Ysabella, Raymond, and Jacme—and travel with them through plague-ridden Europe as Rype gradually finds her voice and remembers her story. The Black Death always makes for a grim backdrop, and Zahler does a very good job of bringing the medieval era to life. Rype and her friends are clearly of their time while also understandable to readers in ours. Rype’s gradual healing and growth are sympathetically and believably shown—short flashbacks of memory interpose the main narrative—and the ending feels earned, but despite heaps of action, the novel lacks the narrative tension to continually thrust readers forward.

A worthwhile journey for readers who love historical fiction.