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The Bird Room
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The book

When a boy named Will meets Alice, he can’t believe his luck. She’s smart, sexy and, much to Will’s surprise, in love with him. Alice brings meaning to his urban existence and his McJob. But the course of modern love did never run smooth and soon devotion leads Will to something darker. Elsewhere in the city Helen is an actress. Or she will be one day. For now she finds work as a model. She used to be called Clair, but she wants to be something new and she can be anyone. She’s an actress, remember. A love story with a twist, this explosive debut novel brings Will and Helen’s lives together in a tale as tight as rope and as black as tar. The Bird Room is a candid, funny, intimate portrait of a generation.

The Reviews

A simple enough story . . . but Killen creates something memorable out of his everyday ingredients. Clever time shifts keep the reader on their toes, there are many darkly funny observations about contemporary urban life and his spare, powerful prose brilliantly captures the loneliness of cities and the agonies of love.
Lottie Moggach, London Paper

The Bird Room is a hall of mirrors . . . sparely written, cool, jaunty, darkly comic, with a sharp ear for voice and manner . . . it displays exuberant brio.
Steve Davies, Guardian

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Publication details

Published: 22 Jan 2009
Paperback
208 pages
Price:  £9.99
ISBN: 9781847672605

Other editions
  Paperback

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Chris Killen

Chris Killen was born in 1981. He currently lives in Manchester. The Bird Room is his first novel.