The Man Who Loved Birds

A moving novel revolving around the soothing power of both nature
and literature to heal our wounds.

New York, 1889. The Schieffelins, an elderly married couple, lead a peaceful and comfortable life, immersed in their customs and routines. The death of Martha, Eugene’s dearest sister, leaves the old man grieving and fearful of his own decline. Charged with nostalgia, Eugene delves into reading his sister’s diaries, full of references to Shakespeare, of whom she was an ardent admirer, and memories that the siblings share.

In an accident, the Schieffelins’ horse-drawn carriage runs over a man whom they take into their home and take care of until he recovers. This man is Daniel
Rodríguez, a young Spaniard whose dream is to be a cartoonist. During his convalescence he receives a visit from Nellie Bly, who ends up becoming a regular at teatime in the Schieffelin drawing room. The young friends, as if they were the children the Schieffelin’s never had, fill the house with life and share their dreams and longings with the elderly couple: Daniel aspires to publish his drawings in the newspapers; Nellie, to beat Phileas Fogg’s record around the world.

But Eugene also has a mission, a crazy idea and a tribute to his beloved sister; he wants to introduce the birds that Shakespeare quotes in his works to the New York skies. While he develops his idea, the advances seen in the final
decades of the 19th century follow one another at great speed. New York, a city that no longer looks like itself, becomes a city in which anything is possible, a city in which Eugene’s eccentric plan can become reality.