The Nature of Small Birds

 In 1975, three thousand children were airlifted out of Saigon to be adopted into Western homes. When Mindy, one of those children, announces her plans to return to Vietnam to find her birth mother, her loving adopted family is suddenly thrown back to the events surrounding her unconventional arrival in their lives.

Though her father supports Mindy's desire to meet her family of origin, he struggles privately with an unsettling fear that he'll lose the daughter he's poured his heart into. Mindy's mother undergoes the emotional rollercoaster inherent in the adoption of a child from a war-torn country, discovering the joy hidden amid the difficulties. And Mindy's sister helps her sort through relics that whisper of the effect the trauma of war has had on their family--but also speak of the beauty of overcoming.

Told through three strong voices in three compelling timelines, The Nature of Small Birds is a hopeful story that explores the meaning of family far beyond genetic code.

My Review

I am adopted. Thus I was looking forward to reading this book. I agree with another reader that the concept of having the story not being told from Mindy's point of view. Although, If anything I did not feel any closer to her, her story, or her family.

The three voices of Mindy's family from her father, mother, and sister was nice. However, the tone of the book was downcast in what each of the family member's were struggling with that shaped them in the present day. 

I found myself at one point having went through about ten chapters and not remembering anything that I had just read. When I am a bit more mentally prepared I may try this book again.