MORE MIRACLE THAN BIRD
For fans of Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife and Amor Towles’s Rules of Civility, Alice Miller’s sweeping debut novel charts the love story of two of literature’s most fascinating characters: Georgie Hyde-Lees and her husband, W. B. Yeats.
On the eve of World War I, twenty-one-year-old Georgie Hyde-Lees is introduced to the acclaimed poet W. B. Yeats at a soirée in London. Although Yeats is famously eccentric and many years her senior, Georgie is drawn to him, and when he extends a cryptic invitation to a secret society, her life is forever changed.
For fans of Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife and Amor Towles’s Rules of Civility, Alice Miller’s sweeping debut novel charts the love story of two of literature’s most fascinating characters: Georgie Hyde-Lees and her husband, W. B. Yeats.
On the eve of World War I, twenty-one-year-old Georgie Hyde-Lees is introduced to the acclaimed poet W. B. Yeats at a soirée in London. Although Yeats is famously eccentric and many years her senior, Georgie is drawn to him, and when he extends a cryptic invitation to a secret society, her life is forever changed.
A shadow falls over London as zeppelins stalk overhead and bombs bloom against the skyline. Amidst the chaos, Georgie finds purpose tending to injured soldiers in a makeshift hospital, befriending the wounded and heartbroken Lieutenant Pike, who might need more from her than she is able to give. At night with Yeats, she escapes these realities into an even darker world, becoming immersed in the Order, a clandestine society where ritual, magic, and the conjuring of spirits is practiced and pursued. As forces—both of this world and the next—pull Yeats and Georgie closer together and then apart again, Georgie uncovers a secret that threatens to undo it all.
In bright, commanding prose debut author Alice Miller illuminates the fascinating and unforgettable courtship of Georgie Hyde-Lees and W. B. Yeats. A sweeping tale of faith and love, lost and found and fought for, More Miracle than Bird ingeniously captures the moments—both large and small—on which the fates of whole lives and countries hinge.
- Tin House
- Paperback
- June 2020
- 368 Pages
- 9781947793767
Buy the Book
$25.95
About Alice Miller
Alice Miller is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the International Institute of Modern Letters. She is on the faculty of the MFA program at Cedar Crest College.
Praise
“The lens through which a story is told makes all the difference. … Miller deftly presents a portrait of Georgie, a young woman calibrating her place in the world, and her shifting relationship with the man she adores.” —Booklist
“Historical fiction devotees will appreciate this sensitive character study wrapped in an atmospheric, moody rendering of WWI London.” —Publishers Weekly
“Subtle and low-key, Miller’s debut coolly appraises the poet while fully inhabiting the woman in his shadow.” —Kirkus
“A shimmering novel about our yearnings for forever, and the greatest mystery of life, which is, of course, love. It must be said: More Miracle than Bird is a bit of a miracle in itself.” —Caroline Leavitt, Pictures of You
“Alice Miller proves herself to be a superb medium, summoning the mind and heart of Georgie Hyde-Lees and placing her at the center of a finely tuned and riveting drama. More Miracle than Bird is both a necessary corrective and a vivid portrait of a set of mercurial artists in a tumultuous time.” —Christopher Castellani, Leading Men
“Only a wildly gifted novelist could give us this terrific tale of Georgie Hyde-Lees and her sometime suitor, the much older poet W. B. Yeats. Written with superb emotional rightness.” —Joan Silber, Improvement