"Gaines' melding of sensual landscapes with ruminations on political history and environmental devastation will be a treat for conservationists, and her critique of globalization and portrayal of sibling rivalry are particularly well rendered. Barbara Kingsolver fans will want to take a look."
--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY "Gaines' novel is deeply researched, and the reader will walk away with an understanding of not only Uruguay's repressive regimes, but also biomes, bird preservation, and more."
--KIRKUS REVIEWS "A rich portrait of a country and its people, relayed with detail and wonder, thanks to a naturalist's eye."
--FOREWORD REVIEWS "Gorgeous, smart, and surprising, Gaines' family saga takes us into the large world of nations and politics, but also the microscopic world of mud and microbes. Tender and powerful. Also with birds "
--KAREN JOY FOWLER, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves "The personal is political: if anybody has ever wondered what this insight means then I recommend Accidentals as an enchanting path toward understanding. A profound and moving experience awaits the reader."
--REBECCA NEWBERGER GOLDSTEIN, author of Plato at the Googleplex "In clean, beautiful prose and with an environmental sensibility evocative of Stegner, Accidentals sings with the vibrancy of the living world...erudite and emotionally compelling, suffused with science and natural history."
--CHRISTIAN KIEFER, author of Phantoms "An intimate family story with an astonishingly epic scope. Alive with history, politics, science, romance, and birds, it is as entertaining as it is intelligent, as beautiful as it is wise. Gabe's evolution from a passive observer to the passionate creator of his own destiny is a life-changing experience not only for him, but for readers as well."
--JEAN HEGLAND, author of Still Time and Windfalls "Captivating...deeply moving and powerful."
--SHERYL COTLEUR, Copperfield's Books When Gabriel's immigrant mother returns to her native Uruguay, he takes a break from his uninspiring job to accompany her. Immersed in his squabbling family, birdwatching in the wetlands on their abandoned ranch, and falling in love with a local biologist, he makes discoveries that force him to contend with the environmental cataclysm of his turn-of-millennium present--even as he confronts the Cold War-era ideologies and political violence that have shaped his family's past.
"Gaines' melding of sensual landscapes with rumination