The novel is a work of fiction. While the science of birdsong and memory is generally accurate, I have chosen to emphasize certain aspects for dramatic effect. The following books and papers were useful in the research.
The Conference of the Birds, Farid un-Din Attar, Penguin Classics 1984 Afkham Darbandi (Translator).
David’s quote: “Speech is a river of breath, bent into hisses and hums by the soft flesh of the mouth and throat.” comes from The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language, Steven Pinker. Harper Perennial Modern Classics. 2007.
In Search of Memory: The Emergence of the New Science of Mind. Erik R. Kandel. W.W. Norton & Company. 2006.
“The flourishing of one is never independent of the other.” When Species Meet, Donna Haraway University of Minnesota Press. 2007.
“Continuing the search for engrams: examining the mechanisms of fear memories.” Sheena A. Josselyn. Journal Psychiatry Neuroscience 2010, 35(4):221-8.
Origins in Acoustics: The Science of Sound from Antiquity to the Age of Newton, Frederick Vinton Hunt. 1978. Yale University Press.
“Searching for Engrams.” Mark Hübener and Tobias Bonhoeffer. Neuron 2010, 67: 363-371.
“What is memory? The present state of the engram.” Poo et al. 2016. BMC Biology: 1-18.
Some of David’s comments about the importance of stuttering were based on those of Dr. David Rosenfield of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas as recorded in “Flutter Stutter” by Matt Walker. New Scientist Issue 2209, published 23 October 1999.
“Hugin and Munin” poem. Rasmus B. Anderson’s translation at the Northvegr Foundation.
Hugin and Munin
Fly every day
Over the great earth.
I fear for Hugin
That he may not return,
Yet more am I anxious for Munin.
The character of Ed Matheson III was inspired by Theodore A. Parker III (1953-1993).