After surgery confines Nicole to an upstairs bedroom, her world contracts to a walker, a crowded nightstand, and the view through a window she cannot reach.

 

 Her husband, Gianni, responds with cappuccino, Italian pragmatism, and a determination to make himself indispensable.

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Then Nicole learns that Aimee—her closest friend, her “unbiological sister”—has entered hospice.

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Unable to visit freely and unwilling to accept how little she can control, Nicole clings to telephone calls, memories, and questions Aimee does not always wish to answer. She remembers their camping trips beneath the redwoods, a reckless expedition to Tijuana, the night Aimee helped her flee a wildfire, and a dream in which the two women fly toward the monastery at Camaldoli.

 

As Easter approaches, Nicole and Gianni travel north in search of the place from her dream. What Nicole finds is not a miracle, but something quieter: a way to love without possessing, to survive without betraying the dead, and to recognize that even the smallest life can carry one drop of water toward the fire.

 

The Hummingbird is a tender, witty novel about friendship, marriage, grief, and the courage to begin again.