The Axeman’s Carnival

by Catherine Chidgey, Europa Editions

The narrator of this haunting contemporary fable is a magpie whose sharp observation and witty mimicry proves vital in the precarious farming world of our protagonist, Marnie. While a talking bird may feel a little Dr Doolittle, author Catherine Chidgey presents such a fully rounded character in beady-eyed magpie Tama that we never doubt the bird’s reliable and sensitive judgement on what soon reveals itself to be a dangerous household.

Tama brings to mind Penguin, the real-life magpie that played a powerful healing role when Sydney’s Sam Bloom was paralysed in a devastating accident – that story made into a film starring Naomi Watts. And like Penguin, Tama is found after falling out of his nest and bonds with his rescuer, Marnie. Both are looking for friendship and security.

“I wanted to write a non-human narrator and was considering wolves …until I realised that the magpies were calling to me every morning when I opened my writing-room window,” Catherine tells “Later I remembered the pigeon that turned up at our place when I was a child; he stayed for a year and was hell-bent on getting inside and sleeping on my bed.” Marnie is mourning a miscarriage and pours her maternal instincts into Tama,