FOWL EULOGIES

In this first novel from French author Rico, a woman’s life and desires swerve wildly after she inherits her mother’s chicken farm.

When her mother dies, 36-year-old Paule Rojas leaves the city and returns to the farm where she was raised. She has inherited 350 chickens. Her mother used to run things, handling the killing and sales. Paule, who became vegetarian after her mom killed her favorite chicken, realizes her memories of her mother “are all connected to violence and death.” She kills her mother’s favorite chicken—her mother’s last wish—and sells it at the local market, labeled with a beautiful eulogy she wrote herself. It sells. Paule grows fond of life at the farm, to her husband’s dismay back in the city. Immersed again in a playful, idyllic life with chickens, she writes of them then kills them to honor their spirits. The eulogies are closely observed, tender, and funny, like much of the novel, but the killing is also a deep part of Paule’s routine. The second act hinges on a supermarket owner who sees big sales potential in the eulogies. And after the locals get violent and someone attacks Paule’s farm, she flees to go into business with the supermarket owner. Back in the city, she reunites with her husband. Conveniently, he’s an architect and designs the urban farm for the new venture, Paule’s Poultry. They hire writers to mass-produce eulogies for the “urban chicken.” They scale up the business. Sales soar. Her husband embraces this odd, magical life with Paule’s chickens everywhere, but it’s all happened too easily, and Paula discovers multiple betrayals. Rico ends the book with a bang and a four-word eulogy from Paule describing her life’s purpose: “To write. To kill.”

A quirky, moving novel propelled by love, grief, and violence.