Bird With the Heart of a Mountain

I throw back my tumble of black hair, roll one bare shoulder forward, then the other. The stack of bangles on each wrist shimmies and slides as my hands rise like birds in flight.

Set during the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War, sixteen-year-old Drina yearns to dance flamenco. When she dances, she forgets who she is. She forgets what seems to be her legacy: I am nothing. I belong nowhere. Why does her mother forbid her to dance, the very thing that makes her feel alive? She wonders about the secrets her mother holds, about the rumored life she had before Drina was born—a story that somehow still holds them both prisoner.

From the wandering Gypsy campagna to the vineyard estate of a paternal grandmother she has never known and the dance halls of Seville where flamenco reigns, Drina fights to discover who she is and where she belongs. Not quite Gypsy, not quite Spanish, she must carve out an identity all her own and discover what it means to be a bird with the heart of a mountain. Full of mystery, loss, and longing, this powerful novel brilliantly captures a young girl’s yearning and her adventurous journey to discover her true home.