Description
‘Michelle Jäger’s beautiful sentences create a compelling picture of the way childhood shapes, and sometimes warps, the adults we become. Vera is a perfect creation, bright, brittle, damaged, and damaging. Perhaps the most frightening aspect of her character is the realisation that, in the right circumstances, any one of us could become Vera. Bird Bones is a mesmerising, dark enchantment of a novel, a dazzling debut from a compelling new voice in Australian literature.’
Carol Lefevre, author of Murmurations
‘Wondrous strange, savage, and sometimes wickedly funny, Bird Bones and its protagonist, the flame-haired Vera, continue to haunt long after reading the final word. Weaving an all-too-human story of love, tragedy and trauma into a dreamlike fable, Michelle Jäger’s is an assured and powerful new voice in Australian literature.’
Katherine Tamiko Arguile, author of Meshi
Michelle Jäger is an Adelaide-based writer whose work has appeared in various anthologies and journals. She won the Elle Australia 2018 short story competition, placed runner-up in the InkTears’ 2018 short story competition, and was short-listed for the Hammond House 2019 and Aesthetica 2020 short story prizes. Michelle has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide. Bird Bones is her first novel.
