“A pitch-perfect, bravura performance . . . In Before Women had Wings, the beguiling story of eight-year-old Avocet Abigail Jackson, Connie May Fowler has staked her claim to a porty of the southern literary countryside located somewhere between Eudora Welty and Carson McCullers.” — Lawrence Thornton, author of Imagining Argentina
“Stinging with tenderness, this is her best yet.” — Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club
“Achingly real, yet more than real, Before Women had Wings has the authentic ring of truth and myth combined.” — Lee Smith, author of Saving Grace
“There is no denying the depth of Connie May Fowler’s talent and the breadth of her imagination.” — New York Times Book Review
“Fowler’s deeply moving, triumphant third novel brilliantly conveys a child’s bewilderment. . . . She sweeps the narrative along with plagent, lyrical prose . . . and establishes herself as a writer of formidable talent.” — Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
“Fowler’s real gift is that she manages to present the ponderous problems her characters face with a style and grace that take your breath away.” — St. Petersburg Times
“Fowler creates powerful intimacies . . . Bold honest, and intelligent.” — Washington Post
“A thing of heart-rending beauty, a moving exploration of love and loss, violence and grief, forgiveness and redemption.” — Chicago Tribune
“Clearly [this book] ended too soon because weeks after finishing this book I still think about it. That’s the hallmark of this writer’s work. She makes me care beyond sense what happens to a cast of troubled characters.” — Southern Living
“Fowler triumphs. . . . Her prose is never less than as sinewy as cypress trees and as rich as Christmas cake. . . . Few writers capture poverty’s weird chemistry of aching hope and grinding pessimism like Fowler. . . . This novel will make you hurt in the best way–and make your mind, like Bird’s, fly high over pure, paradise seas.” — Atlanta Journal Constitution
