Review | Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin

She still doesn’t cry; deep in the shock of abandonment, she smooths the folds of her dress, examines her nails, and, as though expecting a return, stares out at the highway down which he disappeared.

– “Headlights”

When I finished Mouthful of Birds I had to sit with the book for a while as I found it hard to put down my thoughts. This is a collection of short stories that are surreal, poignant, and thought-provoking. The author’s ability to go deep into human psyche and capture the right haunting moments in different settings made for an unnerving read. Themes of family, loss, parenting, loneliness and womanhood are evident. At times, the stories venture into magical realism and drop clues that they take place in a world slightly different than ours.

My picks are Headlights about the fate of a group of women left at a rest stop, Butterflies about a parent’s awful discovery, Toward Happy Civilization about a group of men stuck at a train station and The Heavy Suitcase of Benavides about a murder that leads to even more horrifying ends. But each story carves a corner in my mind and leaves me wanting more. I wish some of the stories are longer though. A few of them are too brief to leave a real impact, such as The Digger and Slowing Down. And as a note, The Test has a graphic scene of a dog being killed.

Overall, Mouthful of Birds is an outstanding collection of weird horror fiction; beautifully written and disconcertingly eerie. I cannot wait to read more from the author.

About the author: Samanta Schweblin

Photo by Florian Krumm