How to turn into a bird

Chilean writer Ferrada (How to Order the Universe) delivers an enchanting story of a 30-something man who makes his home behind a billboard. After Ramon secures a job overseeing construction of a Coca-Cola sign, he builds a "ramshackle nest" on the platform. Residents of the labyrinthine housing complex below think he's gone mad, but his 12-year-old nephew Miguel, who narrates, remains enamored of Ramon's eccentricities and makes frequent visits. Trouble ensues when the Annual Children's Day celebration is invaded by a motley group of rock-throwing children from the nearby mud shanties. They're run off by the residents, but tensions rise when the kids return with a grandfatherly old man whom the residents call the "Bag Man," who was supposed to move into the complex but opted to live on the streets instead. Before the end, Ramon and his billboard are drawn into the escalating violence. Miguel's perceptive and sympathetic view of iconoclasts like Ramon and the Bag Man makes him an indelible child narrator. As in Ferrada's past work, this one has much to say on themes of acceptance, conformity, and societal expectations. (Dec.)

In Ferrada's second adult novel to be translated into English (after How To Order the Universe), Ramón accepts an offer to monitor the lights of a Coca-Cola billboard and sets up a living space inside it, with all the comforts of home--even running water and electricity. In contrast to the noisy apartment complex where he lived with his wife Paulina, this abode caters to Ramón's desire for solitude and need for distance from humanity. The dismayed community, however, considers it an eyesore. When a child goes missing, they blame Ramón, dismantle the house, and burn it down, after which Ramón vanishes. The narration by Ramón's 12-year-old nephew Miguel, who makes several visits to the billboard dwelling, provides remarkable insight into the psychology of the youth, as one might expect from the widely known Ferrada's reputation as an author of many children's books in her native Chile. The story explores not only the bonding between Miguel and Ramón, as the latter becomes the former's friend and teacher, but also the relationships between Miguel and his mother and aunt. VERDICT The escapist scenario may remind readers of Italo Calvino's The Baron in the Trees, and the theme of the value and place of nonconformity in today's society will ring true.--Lawrence Olszewski