An exhilirating provocative novel of motherhood in extremis. Tiny is pregnant. Her husband is delighted. "You thinmk this baby is going to be like you, but it's not like you at all," she warns him. "This baby is an owl-baby." When Chouette is born small and broken-winged, TIny works around the lcock to meet her daughter's needs. Left on her own to care for a child who seems more predatory bird than baby, Tiny vows to raise Chouette to be her authentic self. Even in those times when Chouette's behaviors grow violent and strange, Tiny's loving commitment to her daughter is unwavering. When she discovers that her husband is on an obsessive and increasingly dangerous quest to find a "cure" for their daugheter, TIny must decide whether Chouette should be raised to fit in or to be herself--and will learn what it truly means to be a mother. Arresting, darkly funny, and unsettling, Chouette is a brilliant exploration of ambition, sacrifice, perceptions of ability, and the ferocity of motherly love. -- From dust jacket.