Birds Like Us

Huddled in the shelter of a mighty tree, fearful of the Horror in the world beyond, the citizens of Birdabad have forgotten how to fly and accept the egg-eating tyranny of Kondor and his carrion crew as the price of safety. Gathered in exuberant daily ritual around the great Egguilibrium mechanism, which is tended by the silent owl, Hasan, they unthinkingly trade their eggs for fruit. Hupu, a beautiful and reckless young bird, is determined to save her unlaid egg from this terrible fate and with the help of Hasan, who is her husband, and a magical seed, she opposes Kondor and challenges the system. In the wild chase that follows Hupu, Hasan, Kondor and a tiny busy-body bird called Mi, find themselves flung out of Birdabad and into the jaws of the Horror. Terrified, confused, murderously angry with each other, this ill-assorted band must form a reluctant alliance with a most peculiar guide – an enormous blue Bat, prone to Sufic utterances, who promises to help them get home if they will help him reach the Sun. Only Hupu knows that their guide is blind. And the Bat doesn’t know that these birds can’t fly. Travelling from a vast modern city to the top of a volcano, down the slippery slope of a glacier or across the wide empty sea, always pursued by the Horror, our unlikely heroes cheat, lie, double-cross and abandon each other. Through these hair-raising adventures, they are eventually forced to work together to face their fear and understand the true nature of the Horror.