The Gravity of Birds: A Novel

Written by Tracy Guzeman

Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

A debut novel already destined to be a book club favorite. “With its deft interweaving of psychological complexity and riveting narrative momentum, with its gorgeous prose and poetic justice, The Gravity of Birds is about sibling rivalry, tragedies, and resurrections. And it’s irresistibly exquisite” (San Francisco Chronicle).

Forty-four years after the brilliant young painter, Thomas Bayber, first meets Alice and Natalie Kessler, Bayber unveils a never-before-seen work, Kessler Sisters—a provocative painting depicting the young Thomas, Alice, and Natalie. Bayber asks Dennis Finch, an art history professor, and Stephen Jameson, an eccentric young art authenticator, to sell the painting. But their task becomes more complicated when the artist requires that they first locate Alice and Natalie, who seem to have disappeared.

Told in alternating chapters that weave revelations about the sisters’ past with clues Finch and Jameson discover in the present, this story sets three characters on a collision course with their histories, showing how families tear themselves apart and then try to bind themselves together again, not always creating the same fabric. The Gravity of Birds “combines the drama of warring sisters, the mystery of a missing painting, and the sorrow of lost love into a haunting elegy that will…leave you breathless” (Tiffany Baker, author of The Little Giant of Aberdeen County).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Aug 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781442363403

Tracy Guzeman

Tracy Guzeman lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her fiction has been published in Gulf Coast, Vestal Review and Glimmer Train Stories, and performed as part of the New Short Fiction Series Emerging Voices Group Show. The Gravity of Birds is her first novel.

Reviews for The Gravity of Birds

[Anna Zell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful characters and a plot twist that I didn’t see coming!

[ldvoorberg · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not so much about birds, more about art, and particularly about the past and grudges and memories and holding on (or out) for a long time. It's a mystery without a murder (rare!) and pretty interesting. I enjoyed reading it.

Interesting how the older sister never gets a voice, but almost everyone else does. Her motives and life remain quite a mystery! I noticed that the book never speculates on her reasons or feelings about her secrets, which is a hole in the story.

This would be a good book club book.

[e.-79 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Pros: promising beginning, mystery, psychology, art, family dynamics Cons: too much like a chick lit, too many coincidences, tear- jerkers, etc.

[jcambridge_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An interesting novel with a number of complex characters and some interesting insights into both art and ornithology. Guzeman is a talented writer, but I felt the book ended with a few too many coincidences -- a rush to the finish?? I also felt the move to Orion, TN was never really explained -- why there??? I would recommend it and look forward to a bookclub discussion of the book later this week.

[sharoncville3579 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a first novel by an obviously talented writer. The story was certainly interesting and the characters were well-drawn. She captures the web of relationships nicely, family and friends, living and departed. If I have a criticism it is that this novel relies far to heavily on the fiction of coincidence. One big coincidence is acceptable to a story, but when they start piling up, they start to seem like laziness-- a shortcut out of a plot point when the author finds that she has written herself into a corner. The result is that the novel seems a bit incomplete and leaves the reader with too many (for me) unanswered questions.

That being said, I can hardly be too critical of anyone who has managed to complete and publish such an interesting novel! That is an accomplishment deserving celebration. Despite my criticism, I look forward to reading her future works and to seeing her talent develop.

[berly_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An accomplished and reclusive artist, Thomas Bayber, has asked Dennis Finch, an art history professor, and Stephen Jameson, an art authenticator, to sell his previously unknown painting. The catch? It's a triptych, and the two end panels are missing. The men must track them down by finding the two sisters in the portrait. The book unfolds in the voices of Finch, Jameson and one of the two sisters. Spanning over forty years, this story is told with rich, beautiful language, humor and poignancy, spanning the art world, ornithology, and sibling rivalry. The scenery shifts from a family beach house to New York City, on to small town America and Santa Fe, as our two detectives search for clues in the details, ultimately finding their lives connecting in ways they never could have imagined. I fell in love with the characters, each wonderfully eccentric and engaging; the plot takes enticing twists and turns and I really couldn't wait to find out how it all turned out. I am in love with this book. Absolutely my favorite read of the year so far!

[amyj96 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The writing was wonderful and the story mysterious. There were a lot of twists I wasn't expecting, most of which worked well but there was one at the end I felt was a little unnecessary.

[pattylouise_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Gravity Of BirdsbyTracy GuzemanMy thoughts after reading this book...This is a book about losses. Aching, blinding, heartbreaking life altering losses. This lovely book with its beautiful writing is about pain and sadness. It is also about lies and separation and choices...all of these made both with love and without love. The sadness in this book is heartbreaking because it can not be undone or made better. It's the kind of sadness that feels as though it could have been avoided if everyone involved had just been real and honest. But they weren't because something held them back...some part of them that made them bitter...unfeeling...afraid.This novel takes place in the present and also in the past...a past that was about 35 years ago. It is the story of Thomas Bayber...an incredibly talented artist...and his relationship with Natalie and Alice Kessler...two sisters he met one summer when they both had lake houses next door to each other. He was in his thirties...they were young...Natalie almost ready for college...Alice still in high school. Alice was at the threshold of a disease...rheumatoid arthritis...that would be with her forever. Natalie was beautiful, moody, free. Over time they both were involved with Thomas. Both relationships were traumatic, secretive, damaging. In the present time, Thomas has not painted in over 20 years and has requested that a friend of his find pieces of one of his unknown works. That means finding the Kessler sisters because they have these paintings. They might not even know that they have the paintings and that these works are a part of a triptych. Thomas wants the paintings sold together and to do this Natalie and Alice must be found. Enter Finch and Stephen...kind of an odd fellow duo whom Thomas charges to find the sisters. This also means that Alice will find out the truths and lies that Natalie has peppered their lives with. Once Alice is free of Natalie the lies that Natalie told are revealed. Sounds simple but the truth will change Alice for the rest of her life.What I loved about this book...The unraveling of Natalie and Alice's relationship was delicious. Natalie was hateful to Alice for so many years. She was dishonest, hateful, and truly mean.I wanted to shake Alice...she seemed so gullible...she never doubted Natalie and just accepted her words as truth. I also loved Finch and Stephen...recently widowed history professor and quirky art authenticator...they were tasked by Thomas to find the Kessler sisters and the missing pieces of the painting. Plus Stephen is even more a part of this mystery than he even knows. Final thoughts...I loved this book...perhaps it's one of my favorites this year. The past and present intermingle within this fine book and it reads like an unputdownable mystery. I did not want it to end.

[gbill_7 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Two sisters meet a budding young artist at a lake while on vacation with their parents in 1963. Flash forward to the present, where the artist is now famous but in decline. He unveils a secret work to an old friend and an art appraiser, and sets the two of them off on a mission, which essentially turns out to be finding the sisters who have disappeared long ago. I won’t say more than that. The past is then unraveled over the course of the book, with a few twists and turns along the way.The chapters set in the past sizzle, and it’s a shame there weren’t more of them. Guzeman’s writing in her first novel is strong and she has promise as an author, but the mystery here is quite simple, the plot twists are too convenient, and several of the emotional reactions ring false. The book also gets bogged down in the two guys bumbling their way towards finding the sisters in the present. Quotes:On the past:“Her cheeks stung from the sharp rain nettling her skin. Why had she come back here? She saw the hazy outline of the Bayber house through the waving trees. She’d come because this was where her past was happily captive, woven into the woods, sparking off the surface of the lake. Her younger self still hid in the forest, deciphering the songs of birds, naming the stars in the night sky, half-listening for the reassuring call of her name by her parents, who laughed more and rank more and reminisced on the dock while dangling their pale legs in the cold, dark water. This was where she’d pushed her way through the thin paper skin of adolescence to feel the lovely stirrings of attraction, the polarized tugs of desire and insecurity.” On old age:“Time had flown away from her, minutes like birds, gone in a flash of wing. How odd it was, all those years spent feeling old when she’d been young. And now that she couldn’t be considered young anymore, not by anyone’s standards, she didn’t feel old. Instead, she felt like she’d finally caught up with herself and was exactly the age she was supposed to be.”

[debnance_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Two sisters. One attractive man.And birds. Lots of birds.Art. Lots of art.A love story and a story of two sisters at odds with each other forced by circumstances to live together. A story that zooms in and out from the past to the present and all the times in between, a story that leaves you filled with sadness for What-Might-Have-Been and What-Shouldn’t-Have-Happened and What-Wasn’t-Said. I liked this story a lot. I think you will, too.

[jeff1124 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book tells the story of Alice and Natalie Kessler. The two sisters meet artist Thomas Bayber when they are young and on vacation at a lake house. Thomas has a large affect on both women, to give anything away would be spoiling the book. The main thing about this book that keeps you reading is learning the secrets of all of the characters. The characters are the best thing about this book. Most of them are well drawn and you care about them. The characters of Natalie and Thomas are more left up to interpretation, you gain knowledge about them mostly by what the other characters tell you. I found this book to be a bit slow and to me it did not necessarily flow very well. That said, it was still enjoyable, mostly to see how everything turned out.

[quiltinfun06 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Guzeman weaves together a brilliant tale of two sisters that have been affected by a terrible secret. In 1963 while on vacation , the Kessler sisters meet Thomas Bayber an artist who drastically impacts their lives. Without a doubt this is one of the best books I've had the pleasure to read. Beautifully written in alternating chapters, the complicated story of Natalie and Alice is mesmerizing. I highly recommend The Gravity of Birds as a must read.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A family lake house, two sisters, and a young painter living next door, who comes from a wealthy family that will not accept painting as a reliable job source. This is a quiet book, a book about things under the surface, of paintings and human hearts. About wrong decisions made that affect the future of all of them. This book drew me in, the prose is wonderful at times, the moments shared between the characters are poignant. Misunderstandings are a the forefront of most of what happens in this novel, some tragic, some just a spur of the moment decision. I think the characters we come to know the most are Finn and Alice. The other characters we know only through the lens of others. I learned much about the art world, the steps to authenticating the painting and the cut throat world of the appraisers and sellers. Found that fascinating. Some of the story deemed to drag a bit and this caused the story to drag in spots. All in all I enjoyed this book with beautiful cover, enjoyed the quietness and the unraveling.I loved this quote, "The estimation of an artist's talent is often based on his ability to render both light and shadow. If you have any choice in the matter, spend your time seeking the former." Words that should fit us all whether we are painters or not.