Simon Jimenez | THE VANISHED BIRDS

A mysterious child lands in the care of a solitary woman, changing both of their lives forever in this captivating debut of connection across space and time. This is when your life begins. Lonely and adrift, Nia Imani is essentially a time traveler, a woman out of place and outside time. A month of travel for her is a decade for all others. But when she takes in a boy who fell from the sky, everything changes. The boy refuses to speak, but he plays beautiful, haunting music. Through this unusual communication, these two outsiders form a bond, finding solace in each other. Their fateful encounter allows them to start life anew, and over years of traveling together through the stars, they grow from strangers into mother and son. But Nia is not the only one who wants the boy. The past cannot be outrun forever, and when it catches up, it threatens to tear this family apart.