For the first time since he'd left the island he thought of the starlings massed at dusk in the winter trees behind the children's home.
He remembered the rustle of their wings when they twisted in skeins over the fields, or swelled and contracted high above the cliffs, dark wave after dark wave, lifting and falling in a kind of dance.
Sister Lucy had said it was a murmuration.
He was still quite young, and he had thought the birds were showing him a sign, that there was something written in their fluid patterns.
Lives merge and diverge; they soar and plunge, or come to rest in impenetrable silence.
Erris Cleary's absence haunts the pages of this exquisite novella, a woman who complicates other lives yet confers unexpected blessings.
Fly far, be free, urges Erris.
Who can know why she smashes mirrors? Who can say why she does not heed her own advice? Among the sudden shifts and swings, the swerving flight paths taken, something hidden must be uncovered, something dark and rotten, even evil, which has masqueraded as normality.
In the end it will be a writer's task to reclaim Erris, to bear witness, to sound in fiction the one true note that will crack the silence.
About the Author Carol Lefevre holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide, where she is a Visiting Research Fellow.
Her first novel Nights in the Asylum (2007) was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and won the Nita B.
Kibble Award.
As well as her non-fiction book Quiet City: Walking in West Terrace Cemetery (2016), Carol has published short fiction, journalism, and personal essays.
She was the recipient of the 2016 Barbara Hanrahan Fellowship, and is an affiliate member of the J.
Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice, where she was Writer-in-Residence in 2017.
Her most recent book The Happiness Glass (2018) was published by Spinifex Press.
Carol lives in Adelaide.
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Spinifex Press Murmurations, paperback/carol lefevre
