Urban Fantasy.
Charles de Lint likes to start his stories in the real world, then gradually reveal that reality as we see it is a facade, the top layer of a world of many layers. This time, though, he starts with the magic: Hank Walker, the gypsy cab driver, gets himself shot trying to save a strange woman, Lily Carson, from a beating and has his wound healed by one of two little girls who kill his assailant. Lily was attacked because she was seeking the animal people, people who began as animals. Unknown to Lily and Hank, the two little girls are crows and the man they killed was a cuckoo, caught in an initial skirmish in a war to prevent coyote from destroying humankind with raven's cauldron.
First Day, Spirit Time, when the sun was born and the moon called up out of the sea, all of the animals had their form but weren't quite awake. But coyote wanted to improve himself. He took the bobcat's bushy tail, the dolphin's legs and various parts from other animals, then discovered the crows watching him had seen everything. Coyote and his kin, the Canids, dislike the black birds, the Corbae, simply because they know.
Cody, Old Man Coyote, keeps taking Raven's magic cauldron so he can make the world a better place. The first time he does this, he brings humankind into being. He keeps taking the cauldron to try to fix this error. This time he plans to get rid of humankind completely. But now the cuckoos have the cauldron and decide to destroy the world and take everything and everyone back into dream time. Hank and Lily have to stop them. But first they must learn what is happening, however fantastic it seems.
De Lint's story has as many layers as his otherworld, which he compares to an onion. His city of Newford is magical, too, having places that resemble any other place in the world. His characters are real, people we can hate or love. The tale is well-told. It is worth reading.