Winter Birds

Winter Birds

“A difficult old woman may be entertaining if you are not responsible for her upkeep.” After coming to live with her nephew and his wife in Mississippi, Sophia Hess observes them from behind her wall of silence and disapproval as they come and go. She spends her days reading, watching the birds outside her window, losing herself in television reruns, and eating the meals dutifully prepared for her. Though frequently haunted by thoughts of all the different ways to die, she slowly begins to consider new ways to live. With dry wit, she assesses all that she sees and hears, then gradually reassesses the people around her. From Phyllis Tickle, former Religion Editor for Publishers Weekly : “If ever angels were to try writing stories, they would strive to make them like Jamie Langston Turner’s novels. Steady, soft-spoken, elegantly plain, Turner. . . sings us down into the kingdom of the believing heart. I love her books.” Jamie Langston Turner retired from teaching creative writing courses at Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC, in 2016. Born in Mississippi, she has lived in the South all her life and has set most of her books in South Carolina. Her first novel, Suncatchers, was published in 1995 by Thomas Nelson, and her next six were published by Bethany House: Some Wildflower in My Heart, By the Light of a Thousand Stars, A Garden to Keep, No Dark Valley, Winter Birds, and Sometimes a Light Surprises. Her most recent novel, To See the Moon Again, was published in 2014 by Penguin/Berkley. Winner of two Christy Awards for Excellence and a Christianity Today Book Award of Merit, Jamie is currently working on another novel. She has been married for fifty years to Daniel Turner, a retired BJU faculty member in the Division of Music.