Birdy, Paperback/William Wharton

Hailed upon its publication as ``a classic for readers not yet born`` ( Philadelphia Inquirer ), Birdy is an inventive, hypnotic novel about friendship and family, dreaming and surviving, love and war, madness and beauty, and, above all, ``birdness.`` It tells the story of Al, a bold, hot-tempered boy whose goals in life are to life weights and pick up girls, and his strange friend Birdy, the skinny, tongue-tied perhaps genius who only wants to raise canaries and to fly. While fighting in World War II, they find their dreams become all too real--and their lives are changed forever. In Birdy , William Wharton crafts an unforgettable tale that suggests another notion of sanity in a world that is manifestly insane.