The Last Bird of Paradise

I wrote it, and I'm really proud of it. Here is what a few great writers said about it:

I really enjoyed this fascinating novel by Clifford Garstang, who brings his experience as an attorney in Singapore to enrich a story of two women, a century apart, living parallel lives, linked by artwork that appears to come alive. Part history, part romance, part corporate intrigue, The Last Bird of Paradise is well written and propulsive—I didn't want to put it down!
~Daphne Kalotay, author of The Archivists

In evocative and authoritative prose, The Last Bird of Paradise, tells a compelling story of two women who travel to Singapore not of their own volition and a century apart. Garstang's sympathetic imagination transports us in the manner of my favorite kind of fiction – that which convinces the reader of setting and character not because of the author's resemblance to the protagonist but because the author is a virtuoso shapeshifter and spell weaver. ~Robin Hemley, author of Oblivion: An After Autobiography and Borderline Citizen: Dispatches from the Outskirts of Nationhood

Aislinn Givens leaves a settled life in Manhattan for an unsettled life in Singapore. But that's only part of a story that tracks back and forth over the span of a century and keeps returning to a vibrant painting. That painting radiates mystery and longing. So does Clifford Garstang's vivid and simmering novel, The Last Bird of Paradise. ~John Dalton, author of Heaven Lake and The Inverted Forest

A feast of a novel, Clifford Garstang's The Last Bird of Paradise mesmerizes with its story of two expat women who find themselves relocated to Singapore because of the men in their lives. One woman is an artist, the other a lawyer. A century separates them. In stories historical and personal, Garstang weaves mystery, love, and explosive politics, rendering in high relief the uncanny ways in which women call to one another across time. ~Elaine Neil Orr, author of Swimming Between Worlds