Leslye Walton’s first novel is both strange and beautiful.

    Although the titular Ava Lavender serves as narrator and finally the tale’s heroine*, her story goes through several generations, starting with her great-grandmother, remembered only as Maman, an immigrant to “Manhatine” two generations earlier.

    Through the eyes of her grandmother Emilienne, and then her mother Vivianne, Lavender’s family tree is presented. Emilienne, suffering a broken heart, leaves New York and travels to Seattle, where she sets up shop as a baker* on Pinnacle Lane. She gives birth to Vivianne, Lavender’s mother, who later suffers her own heartbreak and gives birth to Lavender in 1944.

    Lavender is a normal girl with one exception*: she was born with the wings of a bird. She looks to the stories of her ancestors* to make sense of her own life and to understand how to find her way in the world as both an “other” and a typical teenage girl.

    It is not until a fateful* day in her 16th year that the previous stories come together.

    This story about several generations examines love and considers the conflicting* aspects of loving and being loved — desire, despair*, depression*, obsession*, self-love, and courage.

    Difficult to define, this is a mystical* story, a historical novel, a coming-of-age story, with folkloric* qualities and magic realism, making us to think of the classic “Like Water for Chocolate” by Laura Esquivel. It is beautifully written and paced, mystical yet grounded by universal themes and likable characters.

    The book is available at domestic online bookstores such as jd.com.(SD-Agencies)