Meet Mattie Saunders, a slightly eccentric loner who loves birds and has devoted her short life to the rescue, rehabilitation and re-homing of exotic ones people buy as pets and then abandon.

In The Bird Whisperer, Mattie is recovering from the end of a relationship with a rock star, the death of a close friend, a #MeToo episode with her college professor and falling in love with Simon, an Indigenous person and activist for First Nations causes.

As if that’s not enough while doing post-graduate fieldwork in The Rockies on the Rufus Hummingbird she confronts an Eagle poacher who sells the feathers and body parts on the black market.

He’s Simon’s cousin.

The Bird Whisperer is a story of a young woman dealing with contemporary issues including animal welfare, oil spills, opioid addiction crisis and truth and reconciliation with our Indigenous people.

Throw in family, career, relationships and Mattie’s uncompromising attitude and you’ve got an intense story packed with emotion, action and insight.