THE BIRD MARKET OF PARIS

THE BIRD MARKET OF PARIS is Nikki's remarkable story of finding salvation from addiction through the wisdom passed to her by her grandfather, including his love of birds. It's colorful, moving story of family love, addiction and, ultimately, redemption.

Nikki Moustaki grew up in 1980s Miami, the only child of parents who worked, played, and traveled for luxury sports car dealerships. At home, her doting grandmother cooked for and fed her, but it was her grandfather—an evening-gown designer, riveting storyteller, and bird expert—who was her mentor and dearest companion.Like her grandfather, Nikki fell hard for birds. "Birds filled my childhood," she writes, "as blue filled the sky." Her grandfather showed her how to hypnotize chickens, sneak up on pigeons, and handle baby birds. He gave her a white dove to release for luck on each birthday. And he urged her to, someday, visit the bird market of Paris. But by the time Nikki graduated from college and moved to New York City, she was succumbing to alcoholism and increasingly unable to care for her flock. When her grandfather died, guilt-ridden Nikki drank even more. In a last-ditch effort to honor her grandfather, she flew to France hoping to visit the bird market of Paris to release a white dove. Instead, something astonishing happened there that saved Nikki's life. Nikki Moustaki is the author of 25 books on exotic birds and a writer for Bird Talk, Birds USA, and the blogs Good Bird and Pepper: An American Dog in Paris. She is host of the websites Nikki Knows Pets and The Pet Postcard Project (which raises money for animal shelters). She has an MA in creative writing and an MFA in fiction from NYU as well as an MFA in creative writing from Indiana University. She received an NEA poetry grant and many national writing awards. She lives in New York City.