Mary feels a similar loss and stress, but abandonment is a different kind of monster. To worsen matters, her teenage daughter, Lissy, is surlier than most eaglets, so when Mary’s father, Ed, dislocates a hip, the idea of sending Lissy to assist him seems to “kill two birds” until she discovers he’s already taken on a helper—a runaway boy with a wounded owl. Reluctantly, she leaves Lissy with him anyway. You’ll like Ed’s dog, Shep. This is not a whimsical tale, but an illustration of the banality of evil, the impotence of good, and the persistent, nagging suspicion that the world makes a beautiful kind of sense all the same.