Book Review: The Last Illusion
The Last Illusion Porochista Khakpour Bloomsbury (I own a copy) When Zal is born, he is pale and strange looking, and his mother (who has already had several other children) finds him abhorrent, so she puts him in a birdcage on the front veranda. For many years, he lives his life among her bird collection. Then, his older sister visits and discovers this bizarre form of abuse; she and a friend make a documentary of Zal's rescue and he becomes famous, a kind of horrifying obsession in the news media, attracting the attention of a Dr Hendricks, an expert in child development. Hendricks flies to Iran to adopt Zal, and brings him home to New York, where they attempt to make the rest of Zal's life as normal as possible. But Zal is not normal, and in fact he quite likes living like a bird. He eats insects, he cannot smile, and more than anything, he wants to fly. This leads him to the illusionist, Bran Silber, who puts on a show about the history of flight ...