"From Governor General's Literary Awards finalist Maria Mutch comes a startlingly inventive debut collection that recalls the works of Margaret Atwood, Kelly Link, Karen Russell, and Heather O'Neill. Wolves talk, notes magically appear on a woman's skin, Red Riding Hood concocts a clever escape, a peregrine turns into a woman with strange compulsions, and Glenn Gould re-emerges into the world as a bird trapped by curious onlookers. Speaking in the irresistible language of fable, romance, and eroticism, these deliciously dark and evocative stories masterfully navigate the space where perception and reality blur. Punctuated with photographs by the author and exquisite drawings from an 1884 book entitled Practical Taxidermy, When We Were Birds is an unforgettably intoxicating assemblage of stories from a gifted writer that will surprise and delight any reader--leaving them craving more."--