{"id":9,"date":"2013-11-27T18:58:45","date_gmt":"2013-11-27T18:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kimchurch.com\/author\/?page_id=9"},"modified":"2026-05-04T22:51:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T22:51:56","slug":"book","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/kimchurch.com\/author\/book\/","title":{"rendered":"Byrd"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crook’s Corner Book Prize for Best Debut Novel Set in the\u00a0South
\n<\/em><\/strong>IPPY Bronze Medal for Literary Fiction<\/em><\/strong>
\nChautauqua Prize Finalist<\/em><\/strong>
\nBalcones Fiction Prize Finalist<\/em><\/strong>
\nCenter for Fiction First Novel Prize Long List\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\nSIBA Book Award Long List<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/strong>Top Twelve Southern Picks for for\u00a0Book Clubs, Charlotte Observer
\nA Bloggers Recommend Pick
\nA Wake County Libraries Book Club Kit Selection
\nBest\u00a0Books of 2014: Raleigh News & Observer, Charlotte Observer, Wake County Public Libraries, Caribou’s Mom,\u00a0Hungry for Good Books
\nAuthor of the Year, Duke University Libraries Book Club
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Audio book <\/a>narrated by Lauren Fortgang<\/a>.<\/em>
\nPlaylist<\/a>\u00a0for Largehearted Boy.
\nPlaylist<\/a> by Mariah Beth Perkins.
\nTrailer<\/a> by Annmarie Woods and Josh Zimmerer.
\nTrailer<\/a> by Victoria Hendricks.
\nTrailer<\/a> by Abigail Rogers.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

“You and me, we aren’t like everybody else.”<\/p>\n

Addie Lockwood believes in books. Roland Rhodes believes in blues guitar. Coming of age in the small-town South of the 1970s, they\u00a0form an unlikely\u00a0friendship.<\/p>\n

They meet again in their disillusioned thirties, this time in\u00a0California, where Roland\u2019s music career has landed him. Venice Beach is exotic,\u00a0a world away from North Carolina and Addie\u2019s cloistered life as a bookstore clerk. Over a whirlwind New Year’s weekend she falls in love with the place, if not with Roland.<\/p>\n

When she comes home pregnant, reality sets in. Conflicted, unready to be a mother, she gives birth and surrenders her baby for adoption in secret, little imagining how her decision will shape her life and the lives of others.<\/p>\n

Told through sharply drawn vignettes and a mother’s letters to her absent son, Byrd<\/i> is an unforgettable story about making and living with the most difficult, intimate, and far-reaching choices.<\/p>\n

\n

What others are saying:<\/h3>\n

“Brilliant writing\u2014lively and heartbreaking at every turn.”
\n\u2013 Jill McCorkle<\/b>, New York Times<\/i> bestselling author of Life After Life\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

“At its root Byrd<\/em> is about heartbreak, loss, and being lonely. The triumph here is that Kim Church’s remarkable skill turns these dark human realities into the stuff of praise song, and plain song, and blues song. It made me shout and holler. What a truly lyrical achievement in prose.”
\n\u2013 Randall Kenan<\/strong>,\u00a0National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and author of\u00a0Let the Dead Bury Their Dead<\/em> and A Visitation of Spirits<\/em><\/p>\n

“There is a strength and power in Church’s writing, and a deft and delicate touch.” \u2013 Chautauqua Prize Committee<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA\u00a0riveting debut. Kim Church is a very talented writer.”
\n\u2013 Ron Rash<\/b>, New York Times<\/i> bestselling author of Serena<\/i> and Nothing Gold Can Stay<\/i><\/p>\n

“Addie is a particular woman\u2014a character that will linger and grow beloved\u2014but she could also be your sister, your roommate from college, a friend in the neighborhood. She\u2019s still struggling in her thirties to make sense of old loves and loss that keeps cycling back into her life. A successful woman in the world, her heart remains in flux until love that can\u2019t be budged finally takes root in her. Kim Church has imagined a world of good people missing the mark as good people sometimes do. They\u2019re familiar, a comfort. I will never forget the impact of the final pages.”
\n\u2013 Patricia Henley<\/b>, National Book Award finalist and author of Other<\/i> Heartbreaks<\/i><\/p>\n

“This protagonist is so appealing, with her unflinching moral candor, her mistakes based on generous instincts. The prose is lilting, joyous.\u00a0This novel\u2014about young lives that start out full of promise, falter, then recover\u2014is a hard luck story that will make you feel good.”
\n\u2013 Debra Monroe<\/b>, author of On the Outskirts of Normal: Forging a Family Against the Grain<\/i><\/p>\n

“Fresh, riveting, and brilliantly written. The richly layered story explores motherhood and its attendant relationships in ways that break new ground, both stylistically and thematically. Already recognized for her work in the short story form, Kim Church should gain national attention with this original and important novel.”
\n\u2013 Angela Davis-Gardner<\/b>, author of Butterfly’s Child<\/i> and Plum Wine<\/i><\/p>\n

“Beautiful, dream-like language … connects us directly with the experience of the characters. It goes right to the heart, without being filtered through the brain, the way a smell connects you to a memory.”
\n\u2013 Nancy Peacock<\/b>, New York Times<\/i> Notable author of Life Without Water<\/i> and\u00a0The Life & Times of Persimmon Wilson<\/i><\/p>\n

“Startlingly honest and so well-written it will bleed the ink from your underlining pen.”
\n\u2013 Travis Mulhauser<\/strong>, author of Sweetgirl<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crook’s Corner Book Prize for Best Debut Novel Set in the\u00a0South IPPY Bronze Medal for Literary Fiction Chautauqua Prize Finalist Balcones Fiction Prize Finalist Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Long List\u00a0 SIBA Book Award Long List Top Twelve Southern … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page_book.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimchurch.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimchurch.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimchurch.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimchurch.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimchurch.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":93,"href":"https:\/\/kimchurch.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2646,"href":"https:\/\/kimchurch.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9\/revisions\/2646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimchurch.com\/author\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}