Birdy

(Paperback)

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An extraordinary story of war and friendship from one of Americas most revered authors of the 20th Century.
Two teenagers form an unlikely friendship in pre-War Philadelphia. Al is obsessed with lifting weights, looking good and chasing girls. Birdy is obsessed with flight.

Birdys passion becomes all-encompassing. Birdy wants to fly.

A few years later these young men find themselves emotionally and physically scarred by Word War Two. Al is called to an army psychiatric hospital to help the doctors there treat his friend, who he finds squatting on the floor of his cell and acting like a bird.

This haunting and brilliant novel has electrified readers the world over. It has truly become a modern classic.

In 1984, Birdy was turned into an award-winning movie directed by Alan Parker and starring Nicholas Cage and Matthew Modine.

Reviews

Wonderful DORIS LESSING

Will become a classic PATRICK WHITE

Most memorable Wharton is exceptionally gifted JOHN FOWLES

It is as good as Ken Keseys One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and perhaps it is better GUARDIAN

Author Bio

William Wharton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1925. During the Second World War, Wharton served in the US army, until an injury led to his discharge. In 1978, Whartons first novel, Birdy, was published to critical acclaim. Before his death in 2008, Wharton penned 8 further novels, and 3 memoirs. The most recent memoir, Shrapnel, was published for the first time in English in 2012.