CHOUETTE challenges our assumptions of parenthood – with owl babies

Reminiscent of Ian McEwan’s Nutshell, Tiny, whose unconventional upbringing we come to learn as Claire Oshetsky’s Chouette progresses, knows she’s about to give birth to an owl-baby. Tiny, though, is an unreliable narrator, either because she’s suffering from pregnancy anxiety and post-partum depression, or because we simply don’t trust women, pregnant or otherwise, to be reliable.

The baby is born and is, yes, an owl-baby: long fingers, barely any sort of nose, and sharp claws and teeth. She’s covered in downy hair and has tufted ears. Everyone but Tiny supposes she will die within days, if not hours; the mother embarks on raising Chouette as best she can while her husband searches for some sort of medical fix. Differing opinions on how to raise an owl-baby are impossible to reconcile, and tensions grow steadily between the couple.

Chouette questions the assumption that parenthood requires accepting the child you give birth to, and of mothers’ superior adeptness at embracing the unexpected from their children (as opposed to men seeing the world as a place they can fix to suit their needs). Owl-babies being what they are, if you might have trouble reading descriptions of many small animals being eaten, you may want to look for a different opportunity to understand families via the process of seeing the real in the surreal.