Summary

Other Birds opens as the novel’s protagonist, Zoey Hennessey, arrives at Mallow Island, South Carolina with her invisible pet bird, Pigeon. A cab driver ferries her to Dellawisp Condos. The cab driver is surprised to hear that Zoey is moving to Mallow Island, and Zoey explains that she is moving there because she is starting college in Charleston in the fall. She also informs the cab driver that her mother used to live in The Dellawisp. The cab driver eventually finds the apartments and drops Zoey off there. On her way into the building, she encounters a number of small turquoise birds. When she knocks on the manager’s door, an elderly black man named Frasier appears. Frasier explains that the birds are called dellawisps, and are the namesake of the building. As Frasier leads Zoey to her apartment, the pair is...