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Summary: From a prizewinning young writer whose stories have been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories "and "New Stories from the South"comes a heartwarming and hugely appealing debut collection that explores the way our choices and relationships are shaped by the menace and beauty of the natural world. Megan Mayhew Bergmans twelve stories capture the surprising moments when the pull of our biology becomes evident, when love or fear collide with good sense, or when our attachment to an animal or wild place cant be denied. In "Housewifely Arts," a single mother and her son drive hours to track down an African Gray Parrot that can mimic her deceased mothers voice. A population control activist faces the ultimate conflict between her loyalty to the environment and her maternal desire in "Yesterdays Whales." And in the title story, a lonely naturalist allows an attractive stranger to lead her and her aging father on a hunt for an elusive woodpecker. As intelligent as they are moving, the stories in "Birds of a Lesser Paradise" are alive with emotion, wit, and insight into the impressive power that nature has over all of us.