Irregular Numbers of Beasts and Birds

Irregular Numbers of Beasts and Birds is a collection of portraits, odes, and ruminations about life’s major and minor disasters and recoveries. In vivid, unsentimental prose, Helman draws individual resonance from universal themes, and a sense of shared humanity that is drawn from the infinitesimally specific. Helman emphasizes the cyclical nature of life — the volume is divided into four sections based on seasons — as well as the human tendency to repeat the “same old stories” over and over again. At the same time, he reminds us that every lived moment is truly its own.