Birds Like Us

In a world tormented by the Horror, the citizens of Birdabad accept the egg-eating tyranny of Kondor and his carrion crew as the price of safety. Gathered in exuberant daily ritual around the great Egguilibrium mechanism, which is tended by the silent owl, Hasan, they unthinkingly trade their eggs for fruit. Hupu, a beautiful and reckless young bird, is determined to save her egg from this terrible fate and with the help of Hasan, who is her husband, and a magical seed, she opposes Kondor and disrupts the system. In the wild chase that follows Hupu, Hasan, Kondor and a tiny busy-body chick called Mi, find themselves flung out of Birdabad into the jaws of the Horror. Terrified, confused, murderously angry with each other, this ill-assorted band form a reluctant alliance with a most peculiar guide, who promises to help them get home, if they will help him reach the Sun. Only Hupu knows that their guide is blind. Travelling from a vast modern city to the top of a volcano, down the slippery slope of a glacier or across the wide empty sea, always pursued by the Horror, our unlikely heroes cheat, lie, double-cross and abandon each other. Through a series of hilarious and hair-raising adventures, they are eventually forced to work together to face their fear of the Horror and win through to a happy ending that truly takes off. —Adnan Cuhara