Other Birds

Other Birds is a magical realist novel by American author Sarah Addison Allen. It follows several connected lives in an apartment building called Dellawisp Condos and deals with themes of grief and renewal, family dynamics, storytelling, and food as an expression of love.

This study guide references the 2022 St. Martin’s Press hardcover edition.

Content Warning: The novel briefly mentions childhood sexual abuse.

Plot Summary

Eighteen-year-old Zoey moves into the Dellawisp Condos, where she has inherited one of the units from her mother, Paloma. She’s alone apart from her companion, an invisible bird called Pigeon. The building manager, Frasier, tells Zoey about the other residents: a henna artist named Charlotte, a chef named Mac, and two estranged sisters named Lizbeth and Lucy. Shortly after Zoey’s arrival, Lizbeth is killed by a falling bookcase. Zoey suspects foul play, and Frasier, who is able to see ghosts, knows that Lizbeth’s spirit is lingering because she has a hidden story she wants mysterious local writer Roscoe Avanger to write and publish. Meanwhile, Charlotte has recently lost her exhibit space and is looking for a new job.

Frasier offers Zoey a job clearing out Lizbeth’s apartment, which is filled with decades of paperwork. Charlotte is initially antagonistic because she feels she should have been offered the job first, but then she realizes that neither Frasier nor Zoey could have known she needed help. She and Zoey become friends, and clear out the apartment together. They get to know Mac, who’s still grieving the loss of his surrogate mother, Camille. Camille was famous for her cornbread, and now Mac unconsciously conjures cornmeal around him when he sleeps. Zoey learns that Lizbeth had a son, Oliver, and reaches out to him, offering to send him Lizbeth’s personal items. Oliver is reluctant to engage in his mother’s life in any way, but enjoys talking to Zoey. After a potential job opportunity falls through, Oliver returns home to the Dellawisp. Frasier looks through Lizbeth’s diaries and learns the story Lizbeth wanted to share: Lucy is really Oliver’s birth mother, but Lizbeth was given responsibility for him after Lucy went to prison for drug abuse. Frasier decides not to tell Oliver the truth.

Charlotte and Mac grow closer, but each is hesitant. Mac can’t explain his manifestations of cornmeal. Charlotte is on the run from her past—as a teenager, she ran away from the cultish camp where she was raised and stole the leader’s money. Her best friend Pepper had recently died, and Charlotte blames herself for not being able to save her.

For her birthday, Zoey receives a copy of Roscoe Avanger’s book, and she realizes that Frasier is really Avanger in disguise. Suddenly, Charlotte’s estranged mother arrives brandishing a knife; she reveals that Charlotte is really Pepper, and she took her best friend’s identity when she died. Charlotte’s mother is stopped by Lucy, who suddenly appears to protect Oliver. Charlotte’s mother is taken away, and Charlotte and Mac decide to try a romantic relationship. Mac is able to let go of his grief and no longer wakes up covered in cornmeal. Charlotte finds a new gallery space to exhibit her henna art. Zoey and Oliver also grow closer, and Zoey leaves to start college. In the final chapter, Pigeon—who is really Paloma in disguise—accepts that Zoey no longer needs her, and leaves for her own adventures.