William Wharton is one of America’s most celebrated authors of the 20th century, but his first novel Birdy (which he wrote in 1978 when he was 53, proving there’s hope for us all) had fallen out of print. Today, HarperCollins’ imprint The Friday Project reissues the extraordinary story about a friendship between two teenage boys in pre-war Philadelphia. Buy it now, read it at the weekend.
