K. K. Barrett

A middle-aged actor and the wife of a photographer meet while on business in Tokyo. They strike up an unusual friendship in the hotel bar that helps them both overcome boredom and loneliness.

Theodore 'Theo' Decker was thirteen years old when his mother was killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The tragedy changes the course of his life, sending him on a stirring odyssey of grief and guilt, reinvention and redemption, and even love. Through it all, he holds on to one tangible piece of hope from that terrible day, a painting of a tiny bird chained to its perch.

Set in Los Angeles in the slight future, Theodore, a complex, soulful man who makes his living writing touching personal letters for other people. Heartbroken after the end of a long relationship, he becomes intrigued with a new, advanced operating system, which promises to be an intuitive and unique entity in its own right. Upon initiating it, he is delighted to meet "Samantha", a bright, female voice who is insightful, sensitive and surprisingly...