It usually starts with a quiet morning walk, a child’s curious shriek, or a pet tugging insistently at a bush in the backyard. There it is—tiny, fragile, and utterly helpless-looking: a baby bird, ...

ORDINARILY, childbirth in fiction is so overwrought and o-my-godful that we can remember admiring Kathleen Norris or some such author for making a fairly good job of it. An exceedingly good one made ...