My Hummingbird Father

Synopsis

‘It's unsurprisingly poetic, full of lyrical, luscious descriptions of the rainforest and shot through with magic realism. I loved it.’ —Daily Mail

‘The poet’s novel of art and abuse vividly evokes one woman’s quest to uncover long-lost memories.’ —The Guardian

‘Scintillating.’ —Financial Times

When artist Dominique receives a letter from her dying father, a reckoning with repressed memories and a pull for romantic and familial love sends shock waves through her life, as she journeys to Paris to face the places and events of her early years.

Balanced with visits to the Venezuelan Amazon, where Dominique explores a spiritual and loving longing (meeting a young guide, Juan), a raw and tender unfolding of this love story is a parallel to the uncovering of the shocking truth of Dominique’s birth, and her parents’ relationship.

Pascale Petit’s My Hummingbird Father is a beautifully lyrical debut novel in dialogue with Pascale’s Ondaatje and Laurel Prize-winning poetry collection, Mama Amazonica.

Praise for this Book

‘My Hummingbird Father shatters and heals, distils redemption out of a history of pain and abuse, and is one of the most affecting books you will read this year. Petit’s jewelled sentences, rich in imagery and inspiration from the natural world, weave tiny, beautiful lessons from sparrows, captive jaguars and broken humans together into a stunning, unforgettable tapestry.’ —Nilanjana Roy

‘I am in love with this book! Haunting, grotesque, lush and strangely tender. A stunning debut novel, afraid of nothing and deeply poetic.’ —Warsan Shire

Reviews of this Book

‘Written in four parts and short chapters, My Hummingbird Father disentangles the relationship between art and abuse, and is shot through with epistolary elements and diary-like entries. Dominique is determined to “paint what hurts until it’s better. She can change the past with art. What would she do without art?” The novel is a redemption song and an ode to the lost innocence of childhood. Petit’s writing is as vivid as Dominique’s brushstrokes: here, there’s a forest full of fluttering, buzzing, rustling; there, Paris’s rues and boulevards, gargoyles and church bells. The author peels back layers and layers, only to reveal more secrets, losses, traumas.’ —Sana Goyal, The Guardian

‘My Hummingbird Father, the first novel from award-winning poet Pascale Petit, features two sisters, whose father Manu walked out on them and their mother decades before. Now dying in Paris, he contacts favourite daughter Dominique out of the blue … Dominique exorcises bad childhood memories with her brush, while trips to the Amazon bring mythic inspiration and a romance with an indigenous guide. The portrait of Paris in the late 1990s is scintillating, with Notre-Dame the looming stone mountain that resembles the spirit-haunted cliff Dominique scales in Venezuela.’ —Suzi Feay, Financial Times

‘Daily Mail: The Best Debut Books this Month Protagonist Dominique is 37 when the father she hasn’t seen for 30 years makes contact to tell her he is dying and wishes to see her. Despite him walking out and disappearing when she was young, Dominique rushes to Paris, where he lives. She is full of questions but he is too ill for confrontation so they begin an elaborate conversational dance that weaves from the present to the past. Answers are dispensed like clues and the genteel urban setting is juxtaposed with the unspoilt jungle, where artist Dominique finds inspiration. It’s unsurprisingly poetic, full of lyrical, luscious descriptions of the rainforest and shot through with magic realism. I loved it.’ —Sara Lawrence, Daily Mail

‘The overall imaginative vision behind this rich and compelling tale is both a concrete journey of transformation and, through the riches of its lucid, dramatic, highly evocative telling, an allegory about what art is for. The wilderness of our wounds and suffering can be transcended by the loving care of the imagination – not as escape, but as the distiller and giver of the essence of flourishing human well-being.’ —Omar Sabbagh, Everybody’s Reviewing

‘Pascale Petit navigates the difficult terrain of parent-child relationships and abuse by balancing the ordinariness of Dominique’s mother’s Black Trunk of family letters and her father’s reduced state of being confined to his small rooms in Paris, with the way that Dominique translates this into her artwork, using the vibrant colours, wildlife and scenery from South America. Her use of animal and bird imagery is incredible and offers a deep insight into inspiration, creativity and interpretation, and art and the artist. My Hummingbird Father is a haunting, hopeful and illuminating look at the artist and her life, her loves and her work.’ —Kathryn Eastman, Nut Press

‘A mesmerising story about childhood abuse, forgiveness and understanding. A thought-provoking piece of literary fiction.’ —Lynda Checkley, Lynda’s Book Reviews

‘My Hummingbird Father is a very special novel. Dominique, an artist, troubled and torn, receives a letter from her dying father. This correspondence brings out hidden memories, forgotten moments and reveries on things past and to come. It is a haunting novel, taking us to Paris and Venezuela – to a romance with Juan, to considered moments of time with her father. The writing is lyrical, engaging and full of moments of magic realism. A very memorable novel, beautifully written.’ —Ben Dutton, Goodreads

‘This book is astonishing, it is so absorbing, raw, painful and hopeful, there isn’t a wasted word or sentence and it offers every feeling economically and with a brutal truth.… A truly wonderful book – don't miss reading this one, you won't regret it.’ —Sarah Wood, Netgalley

‘This is a beautifully written novel, that’s lyrical and treads a line between poetry, visual art and prose. I was touched by it and by the deep connection Dominique has with the natural world. There she can be her true self, an imperfect human woven back together by animals who always accept us as we are.’ —The Lotus Readers

‘My Hummingbird Father is an enigma – transcending cultures and even worlds; this is a hypnotic tale that weaves around you with a deep sense of poetry and magical realism.’ —Stephen Richard, Goodreads

‘Yes, an astonishing novel. Magical and yes, surreal, and gorgeous and terrifying and and and more. I spent the night dreaming of its wee birds piercing my consciousness and the author's. Brava! Between scenes of Paris that I know well, and scenes of jungles and beasts I can now imagine, and pages of honesty robed in the shocked and shocking language of a poet ... A book to read and reread pages like recurring dreams.’ —Margo Berdeshevsky, Goodreads

Praise for Previous Work

‘Petit is a passionate laureate of the natural world, but alive to the cruelty of human depredation.’ —Aingeal Clare, The Guardian

‘Beautifully sad, the imagery inexhaustible, the sorrow and torment both tempered and sharpened by the relish for language and the ingenuity of the imagination.’ —Simon Armitage

‘Mama Amazonica stitches parallels between the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and a mother and daughter’s experience of mental illness. We felt that in creating this duality she might have achieved what should have been impossible.’ —Moniza Alvi, Judge, The Laurel Prize

‘She has a powerful, imagistic authority over the landscape.’ —Daljit Nagra, Front Row, BBC Radio 4