A review copy has been provided by Pine Book Publishing, Inc. through Netgalley.
Another random NetGalley pick for this year. It hasn’t been long, but I already can’t remember how I stumbled upon this work. All I remember is seeing the cover, being reminded of those old Chinese paintings, and thinking to myself, “This looks like a nice, poetic read.”
Wings & Roots talks about the changing of the seasons and how this constant cycle of change affects everything.
A swallow, born and left to fend for itself, finds guidance in its surroundings: a tree, a pot, a gecko, and a human who, seemingly, is also trying to learn the ways of the garden.
I was right to expect something poetic from the book. Its lessons felt like proverbs—direct and meaningful.
My one small gripe is that, at times, it felt like the book lost some of its own character. It seemed to try so hard to make every part meaningful that, instead of allowing its wisdom to emerge naturally from the story, some moments felt deliberately constructed to impart a lesson.
Still, I loved the story. I enjoyed seeing the interconnected lives of all these beings. Each of them saw life through a different lens, and each, in their own way, tried to guide the growing swallow towards becoming what it was meant to be.
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