Distant Birds — Karen Saunders

Travelling from her home in New Zealand to a small town in California, Elizabeth Greer will be claiming an inheritance from an aunt she hadn't known existed. As an ornithologist, Elizabeth is accustomed to living a mostly solitary life and she is the first to admit that she finds birds more comprehensible than people. She thrives on order and logic and expects the lawyer handling the will to provide some answers.
The lawyer and other people she meets in Las Palomas are a peculiar lot who speak fondly of her aunt, but no one seems able to answer her most pressing questions. Instead, she hears the tragic stories in their past and it's within the context of these stories that Elizabeth learns about her aunt's profound capacity for compassion and wisdom that made her an important presence in the town.
With descriptions of bird behavior as an adjunct to the characters' behavior, Distant Birds is a vibrant and thought-provoking story about a town that values kindness and tolerance, creating a refuge.