When Women Were Birds

By Terry Tempest Williams

A daughter's discovery of her mother's blank journals sparks a journey into faith and identity.

4.2/5 Goodreads · 9,760 ratings

256 pages

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Bookroo's summary

Terry Tempest Williams faces a profound mystery when her late mother's journals are found blank. As she delves into memories and questions of faith, Terry seeks to understand the silence and its meaning. What does it mean to have a voice when words are absent? Through fifty-four reflective chapters, she explores the interplay of presence and absence, art, and identity. This journey through her mother's legacy challenges Terry to redefine her own voice and place in the world. Can silence speak louder than words?

From the publisher

NATIONAL BESTSELLERA Kansas City Star Best Book of the Year “Brilliant, meditative, and full of surprises, wisdom, and wonder.”–Ann Lamott, author of Imperfect Birds “I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won’t look at them until after I’m gone.” This is what Terry Tempest Williams’s mother, the matriarch of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah, told her a week before she died. It was a shock to Williams to discover that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as it was to discover that the three shelves of journals were all blank. In fifty-four short chapters, Williams recounts memories of her mother, ponders her own faith, and contemplates the notion of absence and presence art and in our world. When Women Were Birds is a carefully crafted kaleidoscope that keeps turning around the question: What does it mean to have a voice?

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