The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife: A Novel

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of emotional abuse, physical abuse, child abuse, illness, and pregnancy loss.

When she is young, Hannah makes a gift for her father: a wooden birdhouse that she paints red and white in honor of the colors of his favorite sports team. She is eager to present the gift to him but Bernard, stressed over his other daughter’s illness, responds by pushing Hannah aside and then destroying the gift. This destruction is devastating to Hannah and a turning point in her relationship: After this point, she makes no more attempts to connect with Bernard, writing him off as unreachable. If the birdhouse symbolizes Hannah’s love (and desire to be loved), its destruction symbolizes the fracturing of their relationship.

What Hannah does not know is that Bernard keeps the broken pieces of the birdhouse—an indication that he truly appreciates the love that Hannah intended to show him and that he is remorseful for the hurt he caused her. When Fred discovers the pieces, he sets about building a new birdhouse for Hannah, painting it to replicate the original and including the piece with Hannah’s childhood signature in the new version. This act is symbolic of Fred’s desire to repair the damaged relationship between Hannah and her father: It indicates Fred’s understanding of just how remorseful Bernard felt, but it also shows Fred’s kindhearted spirit, which is constantly searching for ways to help those around him.