Of Owls

Neda Kovac has spent her life listening for owls. A nocturnal ecologist trained to trust recordings, field notes, and measurable evidence, she returns to the remote Velin Forest after her mother's death expecting to complete a routine wildlife survey. But the owls are disappearing only from human sight. Their calls remain on unattended recorders. Pellets gather beneath empty branches. Prey animals behave as though predators are everywhere. As Neda investigates, the distinction between observer and habitat begins to fail. Her hearing changes. Her language loosens. The forest becomes increasingly legible, while the boundaries of her own mind become harder to defend. What begins as a scientific mystery becomes an intimate confrontation with a form of perception older than names-and with the possibility that consciousness does not belong solely to the creature doing the looking. Cold, haunting, and biologically grounded, Of Owls is a literary ecological novel about grief, attention, and a living world that cannot be contained by human categories.