By Claire Oshetsky

Tiny, a professional cellist living in Sacramento, has stepped out on her dull husband to have an affair with a beloved friend from her youth, a female owl, and is now pregnant with a baby who is half human, half owl. She wrestles with the effect this baby will have on her music career, not to mention her reputation within her husband’s equally dull family. The novel is named for the owl-daughter who arrives and proceeds to overturn every system in Tiny’s life.

Reviewing the book for The New York Times, Marie-Helene Bertino concludes, “In fiction, supernatural premises are notoriously hard to land, but Chouette’s final moments are among its loveliest. Human and owl meet in equal measure on the page in a crescendo of stunning lines. Just as Tiny longs for the world to meet her daughter where she is instead of forcing her into societal norms, Chouette is best met where it resides: as a harrowing and magnificent fable.…..a searing and ethereal debut novel….”