A Bird in the House

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A Bird in the House is the title of a short story sequence written by Margaret Laurence. The series chronicles the growing up of a young writer/agnostic by the name of Vanessa in the fictional town of Manawaka, Manitoba. A Bird in the House was written from the perspective of Vanessa at age forty, while she recalls her childhood (with the exception of the final chapter Jericho's Brick Battlements, when she revisits her childhood home). It is therefore impossible to tell if young Vanessa was truly able to understand the events unfolding around her, or if she gained that understanding later in life. Originally published as a series of independent short stories, Laurence faced great pressure from her publishers to conform the series into the style of a novel for publication. Having resisted this pressure to conform to the style of novel, A Bird in the House is now seen as a prime example of the Canadian short story cycle. A Bird in The House has been reprinted multiple times. At the moment (September 2007), the book has gone out of print. The company formerly publishing the novel was McClelland & Stewart Inc. under the New Canadian Library line of publications.