The Bird Artist

The Bird Artist by Howard Norman is both a mystery novel and a work of historical fiction set in 1911 in Witless Bay, Newfoundland, featuring narrator Fabian Vas, an artist who paints birds in his remote coastal village. At the beginning of the novel, Fabian confesses to the murder of the local lighthouse keeper, a man named Botho August. The novel continues to tell the story of Fabian and Botho, and the sordid tale that lead Fabian to commit the murder.
 
After Fabian's confession, the novel begins with a portrait of Fabian's childhood in Witless Bay, in which he struggles with conflict between his parents. Fabian's father, Orkney, is a carpenter who is only semi-literate, and poorly educated beyond the nuances of his craft. His mother, Alaric, is a well-educated woman, and she struggles to find joy in her life in quiet and remote Newfoundland where it takes one month to send and receive a letter just from nearby Halifax, Nova Scotia. Fabian copes with his parents strained relationship through art, painting the birds that he sees along the coast and imagining himself to be the next Audubon. His art fills the pages of the book, particularly near the end when Norman goes into great depth describing a mural painted on a local church that Fabian creates later in his life.
 
In his adolescence, Fabian falls in love with the woman who will become the center of his attention for the entirety of his life, a local girl named Margaret Handle. Margaret is a mailboat captain's daughter, and at 16 she seduces Fabian. Margaret is a hard drinker and a domineering woman, and Alaric hates her instantly. She is four years older than Fabian, and he follows her every command because of his deep infatuation with her and his passive nature. To avoid Fabian marrying Margaret, his parents decide to arrange a marriage with a distant cousin, a girl named Cora Holly whom Fabian has never met. Fabian, ever a follower, goes along with the arrangement, though he knows that Margaret will be upset and think that he is betraying her.
 
As Fabian betrays the love of his life because of his inability to stand up to his parents, his mother is in the act of betraying his father. Orkney leaves on a long trip to harvest birds in order to make extra money to pay for the arranged wedding between Fabian and his new cousin-bride. While he is gone, Alaric begins an affair with the lighthouse keeper, Botho August. Botho is an antisocial and grouchy man, but for some reason has captured the attention of not only Alaric – it is revealed later on in the book that Fabian's love Margaret has also had an affair with the gloomy lighthouse keeper. Fabian is miserable about his mother's affair, but does not take action. He sulks and refuses to engage with the couple, but otherwise keeps to himself.
 
When Orkney returns, the town is abuzz with the news that Alaric has been sleeping around, and he finds out almost immediately. Orkney is outraged by his wife's betrayal and becomes violent – the chaos that ensues leads to Fabian wielding Margaret's revolver and shooting Botho. Suddenly, the Vas family is forced to leave their cozy coastal town in order to escape the repercussions of Fabian's actions, and Fabian is forced to come to terms with his own violent past, which is so dramatically different from the imaginative world he embodied as a painter and bird watcher.
 
Howard Norman is an American writer, but most of his books take place in Maritime Canada. He spent time working on a fire crew with Cree Indians and became fascinated by their culture and stories, which lead to his eventual intensive study and translation of Cree, Algonquin, and Inuit folklore. The Bird Artist was named one of the Best Five Books in 1994, as well as a New England Booksellers Prize for Fiction and a Lannan Literary Award. Both The Bird Artist and another book of Norman's on Maritime Canada, The Northern Lights, were finalists for the National Book Award.
 
Though The Bird Artist is relatively typical in its structure, it is a psychologically complicated book that sparked attention because of its unique and beautifully depicted setting. NPR Books wrote in their review that Norman's attention to detail and ability to transport his readers to this remote and beautiful landscape was the real force behind the novel, and the quirky characters added to the book's success. Norman both thoroughly researched the history of Newfoundland and based the story on his own experiences living and writing in remote parts of Canada.