num_pages: 214
description: Joe Allston is a retired literary agent who is, in his own words, "just killing time until time gets around to killing me." His parents and his only son are long dead, leaving him with neither ancestors nor descendants, tradition nor ties. His job, trafficking the talent of others, had not been his choice. He passes through life as a spectator. A postcard from a friend causes Allston to return to the journals of a trip he had taken years before, a journey to his mother's birthplace, where he'd sought a link with the past. The memories of that trip, both grotesque and poignant, move through layers of time and meaning, and reveal that Joe Allston isn't quite spectator enough. "Elegant and entertaining . . . Every scene [is] adroitly staged and each effect precisely acomplished." —The Atlantic
language: English
title: The Spectator Bird
titlecomplete: The Spectator Bird
characters: Joe Allston, Ruth Allston, Astrid
genres: Fiction, American, Literature, Classics, Novels, Adult Fiction, 20th Century, Literary Fiction, Denmark, Audiobook
ratings_count: 7637
places: California, Copenhagen, Denmark
awards: awardedAt: 220953600000
name: National Book Award
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 189331200000
name: California Book Award
category: Fiction (Silver)
publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr