Brad Kessler - Birds in Fall

Pros: Novel has staying power and an emotional wallop.

Cons: A few characters remain caricatures, a forced romantic opportunity.

The Bottom Line: Kessler has written a believable and relatively moving portrait of people caught in circumstances beyond their understanding initially, and followed them into a state of transformation at the end.

Review: Ornithologist Ana Gathreaux works in a darkened room full of sparrows, testing their migratory instincts. Soon, Ana will be bound for Trachis Island, along with other relatives of victims who converge on the site of the tragedy. A tragic ...