Birdy cover art

Birdy

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Birdy

By: William Wharton
Narrated by: Jot Davies
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

An extraordinary story of war and friendship from one of America’s most revered authors of the 20th Century.

Two teenagers form an unlikely friendship in pre-War Philadelphia. Al is obsessed with lifting weights, looking good and chasing girls. Birdy is obsessed with flight.

Birdy’s passion becomes all-encompassing. Birdy wants to fly.

A few years later these young men find themselves emotionally and physically scarred by Word War Two. Al is called to an army psychiatric hospital to help the doctors there treat his friend, who he finds squatting on the floor of his cell and acting like a bird.

This haunting and brilliant novel has electrified readers the world over. It has truly become a modern classic.

In 1984, Birdy was turned into an award-winning movie directed by Alan Parker and starring Nicholas Cage and Matthew Modine

©1980 William Wharton (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Historical Fiction Fiction Feel-Good Friendship War

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Midwinter cover art
The Big Rock Candy Mountain cover art
Carry Me Home cover art
Big Maria cover art
Paperboy cover art
Lullabies for Little Criminals cover art
Armadillos cover art
A Confederate General from Big Sur cover art
Stephen Florida cover art
That Eye, The Sky cover art
Feed cover art
The Tie That Binds cover art
Freak the Mighty cover art
The Midnight Fox cover art
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest cover art
Four Fires cover art

Critic reviews

‘Wonderful’ DORIS LESSING

‘Will become a classic’ PATRICK WHITE

‘Most memorable… Wharton is exceptionally gifted’ JOHN FOWLES

‘It is as good as Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest… and perhaps it is better’ GUARDIAN
All stars
Most relevant  
Read it years ago and was excited to find it in an audio version. it's a beautiful story of friendship, war and the obsession of learning how to fly. for me it was one of those books you cant put away. Listened three times just to prolong the pleasure.

Amazing story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
that's the kind of story ill be reading every so often till the end of my days

my favourite book ever.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.