Available June 2, 2026
I have stories to tell you.
In the words of Emily Dickinson, “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers.”
A Thing with Feathers is a strikingly original and propulsive novel-in-stories inviting reflection on hope in our time.
A sickly boy falls under the spell of an illustrated book. In it, a boy his own age answers a call to adventure, faces mortal danger, and survives it.
Unwilling or perhaps unable to part with this dauntless version of himself, the reader begins composing additional tales for his alter ego, who not only has his own new adventures but also collects stories from people he encounters, people in desperate circumstances who can only hope against hope.
In this way they grow older together, the reader and his hero, until finally the day comes when they meet, as witnessed by a thing with feathers.
In the spirit of boldly inventive, thought-provoking novels by writers such as Italo Calvino and Gabriel García Márquez, A Thing with Feathers is both engrossing and inspiring, a book to be savored and revisited.
“Hope: the following page. Do not close the book.”
“I have turned all the pages of the book without finding hope.”
“Perhaps hope is the book.”
~ Edmond Jabès, “Drawn Curtains” in Return to the Book
Fables
PROLOGUE
OVERTURE
Island, in which hope is a dark and winding ascent
SEVEN FABLES
Fire, in which hope is a backward glance
Sky, in which hope is a sound from beyond a wall
Bison, in which hope is a book of dreams
River, in which hope is wordless beckoning
Snow, in which hope is a figure dimly seen
Bees, in which hope is a garden
Desert, in which hope is a pillar of smoke
INTERLUDE
ANOTHER FABLE
City, in which hope is a crossroads
INTERLUDE
ANOTHER FABLE
Home, in which hope is the touch of a hand
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
About the author
James Abbot
James Abbot, “Jim” to his family and friends, is the author of The Burdens of Aeneas: A Son’s Memoir of Duty and Love, finalist for a 2018 Georgia Author of the Year Award. He has a doctorate in classics and has written and taught courses on Latin poetry and Roman history.
Born and raised in rural Georgia, he lives now with his family in Brooklyn, where he dreams about wild rivers and deep forests.
This is his first novel.
Praise for The Burdens of Aeneas
★★★★★
Deeply erudite and wonderfully elegant in its prose
★★★★★
I can’t recommend this work too highly. . . . enormously wise and helpful
Prof. Ward W. Briggs Jr. in the journal Vergilius:
A personal book that exemplifies the very intimate connections that Vergil has created with his readers over the centuries