The Impossible Bird [Hardcover]

Patrick O'Leary (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 12, 2002

There is a place—a world—where famine and poverty do not exist.
Nor sickness nor misery nor unhappiness of any kind.

Is it Heaven?

As two brothers are about to discover,
it’s more like Hell.

Michael Glynn is a hotshot director addicted to a there’s-no-success-like-excess hedonism. Daniel Glynn is a professor of literature, devoted husband, and doting father with a quietly buttoned-down life. Brothers bound by blood. But brothers waging a private civil war—an emotional feud of lies and deceit and dark secrets buried but not forgotten.

But all that is about to change.

One day the brothers are visited simultaneously by gun-wielding strangers claiming to be agents of an elite government security agency. Each brother is questioned about the whereabouts of the other. What they want is “the code.” The strangers are convinced one of the brothers possesses the code, but they aren’t sure which. Having maintained only sporadic contact, Michael and Daniel can be of no assistance. Or so they think. The strangers will not take no for an answer. Their instructions are simple: find your brother or die.

But what begins as a cross-country manhunt—brother converging on brother—turns into an odyssey of discovery neither could have imagined. It is a journey that will take them to a world of perfect human happiness. A world purged of suffering. A world without death. A world where a life can be relived and mistakes corrected.

Both have been given a second chance. The question is, is a second chance what they really need?

For Michael and Daniel the answer to that question will be found by unraveling the mystery of the impossible bird.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Daniel Glynn is a quiet, responsible suburban father mourning the recent death of his wife. His brother Michael is a brilliant, hot-tempered Hollywood director. The only woman Michael ever loved left him--for Daniel. It's one of many secrets the brothers keep from each other, and from the world. But Daniel and Michael are rushing toward a strange reckoning. Unknown gunmen have shown up at their doors, claiming to be government agents and demanding that each brother find the other--or die. But both brothers are missing from the world they know, and the new universe they inhabit is a heavenly utopia--a utopia that everyone they meet wants to escape.

Patrick O'Leary's previous books are the novels Door Number Three and The Gift (a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1997), and the collection Other Voices, Other Doors. --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly

A zany premise, coupled with realistic characters drawn into a confusing reality, results in a tour de force that handles themes of death, loss and love with panache and a dash of humor. We begin and end with the death of the two main characters, Daniel Glynn, a literature professor, and his brother, Mike, a hotshot film director only they don't know they're dead. A mysterious stranger charges Daniel to find Mike, and holds Daniel's son, Sean, hostage to ensure his compliance. Meanwhile, Mike is set on the same path: to find Daniel. O'Leary (Door Number Three; The Gift) alternates between the points of view of Daniel and Mike as they traverse an increasingly bizarre landscape and slowly come to realize the truth: they're pawns in a game, with two factions at odds with one another, each with its own agenda to end the hideous, utopic "afterlife" they're trapped in, courtesy of aliens working through volunteer hummingbirds, or to preserve it. But Mike and Daniel are special: the aliens that control the afterlife have met them before, and now they have a connection with Sean. The author plays with language, but the nonstandard use of colons and his sentence fragments distract more than anything, although the prose is otherwise clear and direct. The complex structure and layering of textual clues (including an odd recurring character, a woman in a muumuu) allow the reader to make inferences before O'Leary fully clarifies events. The themes of love and loss resonate strongly in this deeply affecting book. Agent, Susan Ann Protter.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (January 12, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076530337X
• ISBN-13: 978-0765303370
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,266,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

PATRICK O'LEARY was born in Saginaw, Michigan. His poetry has appeared in Literary Magazines across North America. His first novel DOOR NUMBER THREE (TOR) was chosen by Publisher's Weekly as one of the best novels of the year. His second novel THE GIFT (TOR) was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award and The Mythopoeic Award. His first collection of fiction, non-fiction and poetry was OTHER VOICES, OTHER DOORS (Fairwood Press). His third novel THE IMPOSSIBLE BIRD (TOR) made the preliminary shortlist for the Nebula Award. His latest collection of stories is THE BLACK HEART (PS Publishing). His short stories have appeared in MARS PROBES and INFINITY PLUS One, SCIFICTION.COM, TALEBONES and THE INFINITE MATRIX. His poetry was chosen for the 17th Annual THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR. His novels have been translated into German, Russian, Japanese, Polish, French and Braille. Until recently he was a Creative Director at an advertising agency. His work has won numerous industry awards. He has traveled extensively, but he makes his home near Detroit, Mich with his wife, artist, Sandra Rice. His homepage: http://web.mac.com/paddybon/ His Blog: http://patrickoleary.wordpress.com/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars O'Leary's Best, December 31, 2001

By 

Max Callodion (Scranton, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Impossible Bird (Hardcover)

If you don't have a brother, you'll wish you did by the time you are done reading The Impossible Bird -- a profound meditation on familial love wrapped in an intriguing Science Fiction plot. O'Leary's imagination and writing have never been more vibrant. Door Number 3 and The Gift are both great books, but this one blows them both away. I can't imagine there will be too many better novels published in 2002. Definitely worth checking out!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flying High, March 27, 2002

By 

Kathleen A. Goonan (Lakeland, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Impossible Bird (Hardcover)

Patrick O'Leary's THE IMPOSSIBLE BIRD rings all the great bells--betrayal, death, forgiveness, and absolution. Lyrical intensity intertwines the polar opposites of Kafkaesque absurdity with the roots of religious thought; the result is Truth, which strikes deep.

The above is a quote of mine, which will appear on the paperback edition. I wanted to add it to this forum.

THE IMPOSSIBLE BIRD is a wonderful book. I can't praise it enough. O'Leary's work is always strange, always original. I think that this is his best novel yet.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable science fiction, March 3, 2005

By 

Margaret Dybala "too many books, too little time" (Pearland, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Impossible Bird (Paperback)

I always brag that I know the end of a book within the first 20 pages -- because there is little that hasn't already been used as a plot device. I must say, I certainly did not see this one coming! I found this story very original and well written. Two brothers, close in childhood but distant as adults, suddenly find that teams of people are demanding information about their whereabouts, threatening death, kidnapping, etc. And those people don't seem to stay dead when killed. Also, we are given hints that something quit strange happened in South America to one of the brothers -- something involving a tribal chief, and maybe a hummingbird. OK, that is all I'll tell. Everything else, you have to get from the book. Read it! It's pretty good!