The first thing that must be said about The Birdman is that the illustrations, by Montrealers Annouchka Gravel Galouchko and her partner, Stéphan Daigle, are gorgeous. With intricate Gustav Klimt-style patterns filling every brilliantly coloured area, the book’s illustrations are also reminiscent of Chagall in their surreal, fantastic use of birds and eyes and sewing machines with animal heads. The paintings are still wholly individual and suited to the text.

The story, by Toronto author and illustrator Veronika Martenova Charles, is a true one. A five-page afterword describes, with photos this time instead of pictures, Noor Nobi, the real Birdman of Calcutta, and how Charles came across his story in the Toronto Star and followed it all the way to India.

A tailor who sewed baby clothes, Noor Nobi had three beloved children who were killed in an unspecified accident. Numbed by grief, Noor Nobi wanders Calcutta until he’s struck by the sight of numerous cages filled with birds. “Poor creatures! Once they were free and now they are miserable,” he thinks. “Life is so precious and fragile. In an instant it can change or be snatched away.” Aware that nothing can bring back his children, Noor Nobi decides in a redemptive moment to help the birds.

Able to afford just one bird at a time, Noor Nobi buys one creature and releases it. Working day and night sewing dresses, he buys the cheaper, sickly birds, nurses them back to health, and then releases them. Six days a week, Noor Nobi is a tailor, but on Mondays he becomes the Birdman, stroking the birds’ feathers as he releases them (what a glorious illustration!) into a big banyan tree. And as people watch him, they, too, forget their troubles.

The story is simple, very touching, and elegantly told, evoking Calcutta’s colour, heat, and its citizens’ difficult lives. And – let me say it again – the illustrations are exquisite.