"In the distance he could see the clay hills, white and clean against the heavy pallor of the sky. Something black rose from behind them, like a smudge at first, then widening, becoming deeper. The smudge became a cloud; and the cloud divided again into five other clouds, spreading north, east, south, and west; and then they were not clouds at all but birds." Today, du Maurier’s novella is more well-known for the iconic Hitchcock adaptation it fueled. In 1963, Hitchcock brought the shocking premise to the big screen in visceral fashion; an obvious departure for a director who you probably would not have expected to tackle something that typically counted as B-movie material after a string of classic successes (Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Wrong Man, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho). After directing Jamaica Inn and Rebecca to strongly varying degrees of success, Hitchcock was already well-versed in adapting du Maurier, but The Birds might have proven his strongest deviation from the source material in how basically only the premise was taken. As we all know, The Birds turned into a massive success, one that frightened millions of people since. However, that does not mean that du Maurier’s 1952 novella is not worth checking out on its own. If anything, Hitchcock’s decision to alter the source material significantly, introduce different characters and relocating the setting turns both into fundamentally independent works that share nothing but their premise. What both works have in common, however, is the eerie atmosphere and the achievement of turning birds into some of the creepiest creatures in existence. If Hitchcock did not succeed to make you see birds with different eyes, then du Maurier definitely will. At least I will now definitely be more hesitant to ride past the flock of ravens in the park during my bicycle ride to work each morning. This novella is a very short read; depending on your speed of reading, you will probably need to set aside between thirty minutes and an hour. It's worth it! Preferably to be read at night, or while a flock of crows is sitting in the trees across your window.