Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Layne Maheu lives in Seattle with his son and makes his living as a carpenter. After taking a degree in literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara, he traveled to Alaska to work on fishing boats. Later, during the winters in Seattle he learned carpentry. He was born in Burlington, Vermont, and grew up on both coasts, in Massachusetts and California. His intense interest in crows grew out of an experience he had on the coast of Oregon on his honeymoon. He was already a bird watcher, but came upon a man who had been watching the same aerie of falcons for 13 years. Fascinated and deeply impressed by the wealth of knowledge this man had accrued by concentrating on one species of bird, he decided to do the same, eventually settling on the crow family. Layne Maheu is the author of Song of the Crow, a take on the tale of Noah's Ark from a crow's perspective.
This bio was last updated on 05/30/2016. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
How did you come up with the title Song of the Crow?
It’s hard to imagine a Crow’s voice as particularly musical, or all that pretty. But I suppose the crows themselves react favorably to their own calls. I chose the word ‘song’ for the irony, from our perspective, and also for how it would fit within the crow’s point of view. The narrator of the story is a crow.
Originally I had entitled the book Songs Long Gone. I imagine that crow’s might have provincial variations in their calls, and perhaps individual calls that they use to establish themselves. In the narrative, their homes, or aeries, are called ‘songscapes.’ And since there’s a flood that wipes everything out, well, the songs go with it.
Then, when the story was picked up by Unbridled Books, Fred Ramey, my editor there, thought that the title should show the unique perspective of the narrator, and so did I. So we kept ‘Song’ and added ‘Crow.’
What is your book about?
It’s an ancient, ancient story, and most likely one of the first stories you’ve ever heard, back in childhood. It’s the story of Noah’s Ark. But this time, it’s the story of The Flood told by a bird—-by ...
Verlyn Klinkenborg comes from a family of Iowa farmers and is the author of Making Hay and The Last Fine Time. A member of the editorial board of the New York Times, he has written for The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Song of the Crow
Try:
Timothy
by Verlyn Klinkenborg
Alexis Masters, lifelong mystic, scholar and kriya yoga practitioner, holds a bachelor of arts in transpersonal psychology from Antioch University, where she also pursued graduate work in feminist theology and comparative ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Song of the Crow
Try:
The Giuliana Legacy
by Alexis Masters
We recommend 6 similar authors
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
