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The Star Side of Bird Hill: A Novel by [Naomi Jackson]

The Star Side of Bird Hill: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Naomi Jackson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 306 ratings

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Two sisters are suddenly sent from their home in Brooklyn to Barbados to live with their grandmother, in this stunning debut novel

This lyrical novel of community, betrayal, and love centers on an unforgettable matriarchal family in Barbados. Two sisters, ages ten and sixteen, are exiled from Brooklyn to Bird Hill in Barbados after their mother can no longer care for them. The young Phaedra and her older sister, Dionne, live for the summer of 1989 with their grandmother Hyacinth, a midwife and practitioner of the local spiritual practice of obeah.

Dionne spends the summer in search of love, testing her grandmother’s limits, and wanting to go home. Phaedra explores Bird Hill, where her family has lived for generations, accompanies her grandmother in her role as a midwife, and investigates their mother’s mysterious life.

This tautly paced coming-of-age story builds to a crisis when the father they barely know comes to Bird Hill to reclaim his daughters, and both Phaedra and Dionne must choose between the Brooklyn they once knew and loved or the Barbados of their family.

Jackson’s Barbados and her characters are singular, especially the wise Hyacinth and the heartbreaking young Phaedra, who is coming into her own as a young woman amid the tumult of her family.

Praise for The Star Side of Bird Hill

“Jackson has written a first novel full of heart and heartbreak, a novel about going home, about the ties that bind three generations of women across years and despite absence. It is a bittersweet lesson in learning to recognize love.”
—Ayana Mathis, author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection)

“Naomi Jackson has written a tender novel exploring the complexities of motherhood and childhood. The Star Side of Bird Hill holds together opposing elements—the book is quiet in the telling, but the story being told is sharp and vibrant. It is as much a story of the fears of childhood as it is a story about welcoming old age with optimism. A book that knows death and discovery. A book laced with pain but shimmering with hope. With care, the narrative addresses huge issues, such as mental illness, mortality, sexuality, and, at its very core, what it means to love another person as they are.”
—Tiphanie Yanique, author of Land of Love and Drowning

Print length

298 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Penguin Books
Publication date

June 30, 2015
File size

903 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Two sisters—Dionne, 16, and Phaedra, 11—are suddenly shipped off from Brooklyn to Barbados by their mother in the summer of 1989 to live with their grandmother, a midwife and practitioner of obeah, because their mother can no longer take care of them. The siblings struggle to find their places at Hyacinth's home in Bird Hill: Dionne longs to fall in love and return to New York; Phaedra immerses herself in her grandmother's practice. They discover family secrets and are confronted with their long-absent father, who comes to reclaim them. Soon, the sisters have to choose between familiar Brooklyn and the island. In this lyrical debut, the two protagonists come of age against the backdrop of the sumptuous and vibrant Bird Hill, Barbados. Woven throughout are tender moments of love and loss, along with deep issues such as mental illness, sexuality, and betrayal. The protagonists are multilayered and nuanced, and the island becomes a character in itself. Equally heartbreaking and triumphant, this narrative is filled with the pain and hope of growing up. VERDICT Unforgettable characters, a lush setting, and family drama will keep teens reading this deft and stunning work.—Shelley Diaz, School Library Journal --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“The evocation of the island is romantic and alive…Jackson renders [the characters’] inner lives effectively.”
—The New Yorker

“The Star Side of Bird Hill is, at its core, a story about mothers and daughters. But the rich and colorful world Ms. Jackson renders on the page moves well beyond that, too, setting itself the task of exploring so much more…Ms. Jackson has a deft hand with characterization — all of the people she creates feel utterly human…There are questions, pain, tenderness, and also wisdom in [the] writing…Naomi Jackson vividly delivers two entirely different worlds and a whole range of experiences that taught me a little bit more about how to be a better human.”
—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“Stunning…Poignant…Jackson vividly evokes the landscape, the personalities of this Bird Hill community, as she explores the difficulties of the immigrant experience, the certainties of living all your life in one place vs. the claustrophobic aspect of having the past and family define who you are and will be in the future…Jackson’s writing is to be savored.”
—Buffalo News

“Once in a while, you’ll stumble onto a book like this, one so poetic in its descriptions and so alive with lovable, frustrating, painfully real characters, that your emotional response to it becomes almost physical…[A] wrenching debut…The dual coming-of-age story alone could melt the sternest of hearts, but Jackson’s exquisite prose is a marvel too...A gem of a book. A”
—Entertainment Weekly

“From Maryse Condé to Edwidge Danticat to Tiphanie Yanique, contemporary Caribbean writers have produced an exquisite literature of diaspora and affirmation, richly depicting the dreams and disappointments of their characters. Now Naomi Jackson joins their ranks with The Star Side of Bird Hill, a serious yet effervescent debut that showcases three generations of women as they grapple with conflict and loss during the fateful summer of 1989…Jackson brings the lush textures of Barbados to the fore: sugar cane fields and smelly fish markets, raucous festivals and an extended wake called ‘nine-nights’…More than a coming-of-age novel, The Star Side of Bird Hill evokes the intractable forces that tear at families and cultures.”
—Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“[The Star Side of Bird Hill] belongs to Phaedra, an unforgettable character and the best thing about the novel. She's complex, smart and has a sense of introspection that her sister seems to lack…Jackson’s evocative, lyrical writing…makes Barbados come to life, and she’s comfortable with both humor and pathos…A lovely [book], and Jackson seems likely to have a distinguished career ahead of her.”
—NPR.org

“[A] keen-eyed debut…At the novel’s core is a tender coming-of-age story that explores the complications of Dionne's first affair with a young suitor (the title refers to her favorite churchyard getaway spot) and the realizations that Phaedra has about her family and her connection to them all, despite their flaws…A lush and sensitive read with a setting well matched for a sultry summer afternoon.”
—Oprah.com

“Holy cats, this novel is wonderful…Lyrical, a really stellar debut.”
—BookRiot

“Naomi Jackson is our new favorite writer.”
—PureWow

“Watching these three characters find their way to that support reveals the heart of The Star Side of Bird Hill—riveting in its story of family and love, and all the more so because of the nuanced differences Jackson has so skillfully written into each of her characters.”
—Shelf Awareness

“Lyrical.”
—Travel + Leisure

“The Star Side of Bird Hill moves forcefully between Barbados and Brooklyn in this plangent coming-of-age debut novel about two sisters torn between their absent father’s reappearance and their strong, matriarchal island family.”
—Elle

“Satisfyingly complex…Jackson’s lyrical descriptions of the island’s natural beauty and rich culture…[set] this book apart.”
—Bustle

“A winning coming-of-age tale with Caribbean flavour.”
—BBC.com

“A heartbreaking coming-of-age story, The Star Side of Bird Hill is ultimately about the choices we must make about love and family, and what it means to go home.”
—Buzzfeed

“Moving…[Jackson] has delivered a novel of remarkable strength and beauty as she chronicles the sojourn of two sisters to their mother’s homeland of Barbados for the summer…This is a story of sisterhood and tough, unbreakable love. This is a book that asks: What happens when you go home and find the answers you didn’t know you were looking for?”
—Gawker

“A striking accomplishment filled with heartbreak and characters you want to bittersweetly hug…A story about sisterhood, family, and what ‘home’ means, The Star Side of Bird Hill is not a book you dare to forget.”
—Hello Giggles

“The writing is especially fine, with even minor characters benefiting from Jackson’s lyrical descriptions…[THE STAR SIDE OF BIRD HILL] recall[s] Toni Morrison’s Love.”
—Library Journal (starred review)

“A bittersweet coming-of-age tale of heartbreak and loss…Jackson's story becomes stronger and stronger as we get to know these characters. The themes she touches on—mental illness, immigration, motherhood, sexual awakening—are potent and deftly juggled, anchored in the vivid locale of Bird Hill yet universally relatable. Readers will be turning the pages to follow Phaedra and Dionne's memorable journey.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Many moments of awareness…permeate this delightful debut novel. An engrossing and poignant coming-of-age story populated with engaging, well-drawn characters.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Rich in the aspect and feel of the Caribbean…A charming, laid-back bildungsroman and an uplifting story about the importance of a stable, loving home and the embrace of one’s culture.”
—Booklist

"The Star Side of Bird Hill reads as if we’re let in on a sometimes wonderful, sometimes thrilling, sometimes terrible secret. It’s the unwritten history of women without men, of girls in conflict with themselves and the damage—and healing that can come from the same place: Family."
—Marlon James, author of A Brief History Of Seven Killings

"Naomi Jackson packs a hell of a lot of love and death and magic into this wonderful debut. The Star Side of Bird Hill travels between Barbados and Brooklyn telling the story of a family, and a people, who move between worlds and world views. But really this is the story of one young girl named Phaedra who is trying her best in a world that doesn't always see the best in her. There are touches of Jamaica Kincaid and J.D. Salinger here, but Naomi Jackson is an artist all her own."
— Victor LaValle, author of The Devil in Silver

“Jackson has written a first novel full of heart and heartbreak, a novel about going home, about the ties that bind three generations of women across years and despite absence. It is a bittersweet lesson in learning to recognize love.”
— Ayana Mathis, author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie (Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection)

“Naomi Jackson has written a tender novel exploring the complexities of motherhood and childhood. The Star Side of Bird Hill holds together opposing elements—the book is quiet in the telling, but the story being told is sharp and virbrant. It is as much a story of the fears of childhood as it is a story about welcoming old age with optimism. A book that knows death and discovery. A book laced with pain but shimmering with hope. With care, the narrative addresses huge issues such as mental illness, mortality, sexuality and, at its very core, what it means to love another person as they are.”
—Tiphanie Yanique, author of Land of Love and Drowning

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Naomi Jackson was born and raised in Brooklyn by West Indian parents. She studied fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was awarded the Maytag Fellowship for Excellence in Fiction to complete her first novel, The Star Side of Bird Hill. Jackson traveled to South Africa on a Fulbright scholarship, where she received an MA in creative writing from the University of Cape Town. A graduate of Williams College, Jackson has had her work appear in literary journals and magazines in the United States and abroad. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The people on the hill liked to say that God’s smile was the sun shining down on them. In the late afternoon, before scarlet ibis bloodied the view of sunset, light flooded the stained-glass windows of Bird Hill Church of God in Christ, illuminating the renderings of black saints from Jesus to Absalom Jones. When there wasn’t prayer meeting, choir rehearsal, Bible study, or Girl Guides, the church was empty except for its caretaker, Mr. Jeremiah. It was his job to chase the children away from the cemetery that sloped down behind the church, his responsibility to shoo them from their perches on graves that dotted the backside of the hill the area was named for. Despite his best intentions, Mr. Jeremiah’s noontime and midnight devotionals at the rum shop brought on long slumbers, when children found freedom to do as they liked among the dead.

Dionne Braithwaite was two weeks fresh from Brooklyn, and Barbados’s fierce sun had already transformed her skin from its New York shade of caramel to a brick red. She was wearing foundation that was too light for her skin now. It came off in smears on the white handkerchiefs she stole from her grandmother’s chest of drawers, but she wore it anyway, because makeup was her tether to the life she’d left back home.

Dionne was sixteen going on a bitter, if beautiful, forty-five. Although she thought herself above the things the children on Bird Hill did, she liked the hiding place the graveyard behind the church provided.

Dionne’s younger sister, Phaedra, played tag among the miniature graves of children, all casualties of the 1955 cholera outbreak. Nineteen girls and one boy had died before the hill folks abandoned their suspicion of the world in general and doctors in particular to seek help from “outside people.” This was just one of the stories that Dionne and Phaedra’s mother summoned as evidence for why she left the hill the first chance she got.

Phaedra and her sister arrived from Brooklyn at the beginning of the summer. Phaedra was small for her ten years. Her skin had darkened to a deep cacao from running in the sun all day in spite of her grandmother’s protests. She wore her hair in a French braid, its length tucked away from the girls who threatened her after reading about Samson and Delilah in Sunday school. Glimpses of Phaedra’s future beauty peeked out from behind her pink heart-shaped glasses, which were held together with scotch tape. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00OZ0TLGA
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books (June 30, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 30, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 903 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 298 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1594205957

Best Sellers Rank: #921,996 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #582 in Black & African American Literary Fiction
- #4,043 in Women's Literary Fiction
- #4,079 in Sisters Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.1 306 ratings

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4.1 out of 5

306 global ratings

5 star		47%
4 star		28%
3 star		16%
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1 star		3%

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Sarah's Book Shelves

Gorgeously Written Coming of Age Story with Generational and Cultural Clashes

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 12, 2015

Verified Purchase

Everything about this debut novel is just gorgeous: most obviously the writing, but also the coming of age story with generational and cultural clashes front and center.

Dionne and Phaedra have been raised in troubling circumstances in Brooklyn and experience quite a culture shock when they arrive on conservative Bird Hill. They suddenly have far more oversight and discipline than they’re used to in the form of Hyacinth’s tough love. Each sister adjusts to Bird Hill differently and poses unique challenges for Hyacinth, resulting in most of the “life lessons” passages that pepper this novel.

"You can’t wait for someone else to save you from the life you made for yourself. If I teach you girls anything, I hope it’s how to gird up your loins and face the fate that’s yours."

Jackson’s language flows beautifully, with a comforting tone that invites you into the hominess of Bird Hill. With Hyacinth’s role as the local midwife and practitioner of Obeah (a Caribbean form of folk magic involving herbs and potions) and a high value placed on community and religion, there is a strong sense of place and a simpler way of life.

I’m usually not a huge fan of anything resembling folk magic, but Jackson makes it work here much like it worked for me in The Unraveling of Mercy Louis and The Shore. The Star Side of Bird Hill was my favorite August read and came THIS close to getting 5 stars from me!

6 people found this helpful

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Kristine Simelda

An insightful peek into the trauma of migration for young people, and a compelling read.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

The Star Side of Bird Hill, by Naomi Jackson: Sisters exiled from Brooklyn to Barbados to live with their grandmother deal with the change of scenery in separate ways until their absent father comes to reclaim them. Dionne rebels against the life of a “country bookie,” while Phaedra explores her generational roots and falls in love with the island. This is a tenderly written coming of age story by an author who obviously has experienced the same conflicting emotions herself. An insightful peek into the trauma of migration for young people, and a compelling read.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 21, 2021

Verified Purchase

It started off promising, then too many unnecessary words were thrown in to create chapters to give the reader the impression they were reading an interesting story. I felt like I having deja vu through many of the chapters. Same storyline, using different words. This book took too long to get to the point, then just rushed to finish. It took me about 6 months to read it, and I rushed through the last few chapters because I was tired of seeing it in my room. For me, it did not live up to the great reviews it got.

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Kindle Customer

A tale of two sisters

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 16, 2021

Verified Purchase

This book was a little sad at times as depression was a dominant part of the story. There were some difficulties that the girls had to face in the story and it was interesting how they dealt with it. At some points in the book I was lost as I felt the writer started a story but didn't finish it so it was a bit weird. Nevertheless, it was a good read and I recommend that you give it a try.

Helpful

M Broussard

Great Read, Moving Story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 20, 2022

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The author explores the range of inter generational emotions from love, anger, rejection and protection. A very mature story.

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Throbble Fleep

Waiting for more books by her

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 21, 2016

Verified Purchase

The writer creates characters who are well-developed and believable, and the book is evocative of a far-away time and place. I cared what happens to them. But the pace is somewhat slow and it is a little episodic. I'm certainly hoping for other books by this first-time novelist.

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David in ATL

Good editing (by a Bajan) would have caught the several ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 12, 2017

Verified Purchase

Good editing (by a Bajan) would have caught the several inaccuracies, e.g., "cook-up" is Guyanese and perhaps Trinidadian, but not Bajan. In Barbadoes its not "rice and peas," but "peas and rice," and "pelau" is, again, Trini. The reference to "gravelly roads" is wrong - there's not a bucket full of gravel on the entire island, it's a coral island with limestone roads, which may rut or have potholes but don't have gravel.

Helpful

TelepLikeItIs

Relatable and Engaging

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 8, 2015

Verified Purchase

I read this book while visiting family in Mexico, staying the home where I visited my grandmother in the summer as a child, so the story of a child with roots in two countries and cultures really resonated with me. Though even if I didn't have that connection to the story, it was a great read. The storytelling was beautifully descriptive and nicely paced. I appreciated both relating to the characters and story while simultaneously feeling like I was getting a peek into a world I wasn't familiar with. Will read again.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer

A tale of love, pain and perhaps forgiveness.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 27, 2019

Verified Purchase

A lot of times we hear the narrative of the parents leaving and going to foreign countries, leaving their kids forever. However this time we are hit with the themes such depression, loneliness, seeking of self in external influences and the comfort of home. The best thing to happen to the girls was going back home to be in touch not only with their roots but to learn for their grandmother. We are reminded of the importance of mental health and the consequences of not doing so.

All in all great book. I wonder what lies ahead Dionnes future, there’s still a part of her l feel will never be peaceful, perhaps PTSD? She’s been through so much. I fell in love with Phaedra from the beginning. Hopefully Hyacinth lives long enough to see these girls through to the next stages of their lives.

Great read!

One person found this helpful

Kim

Gave up on this early....

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

Too many characters to follow, too uneventful, too boring, stopped reading.

One person found this helpful

Mrs I.

My fault - I bought it as a present for ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 3, 2017

Verified Purchase

My fault - I bought it as a present for my 16 year-old granddaughter but having read it I shan't pass it on because the content is not totally suitable. But the book is very well written

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