A Catalog of Birds By Laura Harrington It’s 1970 in Laura Harrington’s brilliant new novel, “A Catalog of EuropaA Catalog of Birds Birds,” and Nell Flynn is about to graduate from high school. A young scientist on her way to Cornell, Nell has her whole life in front of her. She’s in love with her brother’s best friend and lives with her parents in a small town on one of New York’s Finger Lakes. At first glance, this may seem like an ordinary coming-of-age story, but one of the great pleasures of reading “A Catalog of Birds” is that it’s as impossible to categorize as it is to put down.