Book description
An extraordinary story of war and friendship from one of America's 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.
Birdy's 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 'Wonderful' DORIS LESSING
'Will become a classic' PATRICK WHITE
'Most memorable… Wharton is exceptionally gifted' JOHN FOWLES
'It is as good as Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest… and
perhaps it is better' GUARDIAN 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,
Wharton's 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', will be published for the
first time in English in 2012.
