Birdwing - Hardcover

As a child I loved the tales of the Brother's Grimm. My mother read many of them aloud to me when I was sick at home in bed as a child. 
Later, one of my wife's favorites, it turned out, was "The Six Swans," the story of the brothers transformed into swans and of the sister who vows to save them. She was drawn to the tale by the sister's determined vow to save her brothers. That bold girl embodied all the dynamic, saving power of the Feminine itself. I loved the tale, too. But the nub of its power, for me, circled around an equally mysterious, but quite different, point: What happened to the youngest brother, the one with the wing? In time I realized that the only way to know his story would be to write the book myself and so, uncover the tale that had been waiting, perhaps a thousand years, to be told. 
We all have a wing. It's what makes each of us different and, so, who we each uniquely are. 
Because of his wing, the boy I named Ardwin fell out of myth into this world as a freak and a cripple. Yet, despite the difficulties, he kept his wing, and because of that became whole. Some cloak their wing and hide it, hoping to fit it and be like everyone else. Some are forced to cut it off and so appear quite normal, though maimed. And some learn to live with it fully, just as they are. 
What choice will you make? What will you do with yours?

A JOURNEY OUT OF MYTH AND INTO THE WORLDOnce upon a time, six brothers were turned into swans. And once upon a time, the spell was broken, giving back to each brother his human form...all except for Ardwin, the youngest, He was left with one arm enchanted, forever a wing.And so he grows up, marked by a difference, a prince struggling t find a place in his father's kingdom while his wing pulls him toward the open sky. Ardwin barely knows how to speak to his family, yet his wing gives him the power to understand every other creature in the forest.Half the time Ardwin wishes his wing were gone. But when he learns that his father plans to have the wing severed, he knows he must flee...to save his life and find his way."Martin deftly weaves fairy tale into fiction...The many original characters and unusual adventure scenes ensure that the readers will remember this well-paced fantasy." BOOKLIST