num_pages: 320
description: Hailed upon its publication as "a classic for readers not yet born" ( Philadelphia Inquirer ), Birdy is an inventive, hypnotic novel about friendship and family, dreaming and surviving, love and war, madness and beauty, and, above all, "birdness." It tells the story of Al, a bold, hot-tempered boy whose goals in life are to life weights and pick up girls, and his strange friend Birdy, the skinny, tongue-tied perhaps genius who only wants to raise canaries and to fly. While fighting in World War II, they find their dreams become all too real—and their lives are changed forever.In Birdy , William Wharton crafts an unforgettable tale that suggests another notion of sanity in a world that is manifestly insane.
language: English
title: Birdy
titlecomplete: Birdy
characters: Birdy, Al
genres: Fiction, Classics, Contemporary, Mental Illness, American, War, Psychology, Literary Fiction, Literature, Novels
ratings_count: 7241
awards: awardedAt: 315561600000
name: Pulitzer Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 315561600000
name: National Book Award
category: First Novel
publisher: Vintage