BIRD-HEARTS follows Sunday, a neurodivergent single mom and her daughter over a summer. Sunday feels isolated from the world until her new neighbors, a wealthy couple from London, move next door and embroil Sunday's family in the lives of the rich.

The writing took me a while to get into, and it's a stark contrast from the other "extremely literary" books on the longlist. Nonetheless, I adore this story that gives so much depth and dimension to Summer. Herself also neurodivergent, Lloyd-Barlow writes about the loneliness & uncertainty of seeing one's daughter approach adulthood with tenderness.

While the plot is relatively straightforward, and the foreshadowing somewhat takes away the suspense, BIRD-HEARTS is a much-needed narrative that adds to the existing literature full of neurotypical writers appropriating neurodivergent voices poorly. I'd love to see this book on the shortlist and hopefully more own-voice stories on the longlist in the future