**This program includes an exclusive author’s note read by the author.
In Poland, as World War II rages, a mother hides with her young daughter, a musical prodigy whose slightest sound may cost them their lives.**
As Nazi soldiers round up the Jews in their town, Róza and her 5-year-old daughter, Shira, flee, seeking shelter in a neighbor’s barn. Hidden in the hayloft day and night, Shira struggles to stay still and quiet, as music pulses through her and the farmyard outside beckons. To soothe her daughter and pass the time, Róza tells her a story about a girl in an enchanted garden:
The girl is forbidden from making a sound, so the yellow bird sings. He sings whatever the girl composes in her head: high-pitched trills of piccolo; low-throated growls of contrabassoon. Music helps the flowers bloom.
In this make-believe world, Róza can shield Shira from the horrors that surround them. But the day comes when their haven is no longer safe, and Róza must make an impossible choice: whether to keep Shira by her side or give her the chance to survive apart.
Inspired by the true stories of Jewish children hidden during World War II, Jennifer Rosner’s debut is a breathtaking novel about the unbreakable bond between a mother and a daughter. Beautiful and riveting, The Yellow Bird Sings is a testament to the triumph of hope—a whispered story, a bird’s song—in even the darkest of times.
A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books
Praise for The Yellow Bird Sings:
“Rosner’s exquisite, heart-rending debut novel is proof that there’s always going to be room for another story about World War II….This is an absolutely beautiful and necessary novel, full of heartbreak but also hope, about the bond between mother and daughter, and the sacrifices made for love.” — New York Times Book Review
“Room meets Schindler’s List in The Yellow Bird Sings, a beautifully written tale of mothers and daughters, war and love, the music of the living and the silence of the dead. Jennifer Rosner is a writer to watch.” — Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Huntress and The Alice Network
“The Yellow Bird Sings is a beautiful book in so many ways. Like Shira’s imaginary bird, Jennifer Rosner’s prose is lilting and musical, yet her tale of war’s grave personal reality is gripping, heartrending, and so very real.”— Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours and Before and After
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A brilliant and transporting novel.
An extraordinarily beautiful and moving novel of the human heart. It is a rich and poignant story of the enduring power of love and hope in the face of peril.
Desperately moving and exquisitely written. If you only read one book this year, make it The Yellow Bird Sings. A beautiful story with achingly memorable characters, for me Jennifer Rosner’s novel stands alongside The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Code Name Verity as one of those profoundly special World War Two novels you know you will never forget.
I cannot even imagine having to hide yourself and your young daughter from the horrors of war. Roza is that mother, she must protect Shira with all that she has and keep her safe from what would be a horrific death if the Nazi’s found her. As the war continues, their safety is put at risk and a decision to let Shira go with another woman to keep her safe must be made. My heart broke, I had tears at Roza letting her daughter go but also at what Roza must now endure to keep herself safe so that she can find her way back to her daughter.
I have read many books set during WWII. I enjoy finding new views, new stories to learn, and new characters to feel for. Roza and Shira are mother and daughter. They struggle during the war together and apart, the keep the hope alive that they will find each other again, and they both manage to find a life to live after the war is over.
The Yellow Bird Sings
Jennifer Rosner
Flatiron Books, Mar 2020
304 pages
Historical novel, WWII
Triggers: rape, abortion, racial segregation, war.
NetGalley
The cover is simple and most misleading as to any clue to the story. Well, unless you picture this as what Shira sees in her mind. No, I don’t believe Shira ever saw gray in her mind. The music in her mind was too rich to settle for something as mundane as gray.
The Nazis have come and Shira and her mother, Roza, are hiding in the loft of a neighbor’s barn. Shira comes from a family of musicians and is a gifted musician herself. In her mind, she composes music for several different instruments that her family had played and made before the Nazis came. This is how her mother keeps her 5-year-old daughter silent. She tells her a story about a magical garden where a lovely yellow bird sings what Shira creates in her head. The music keeps the flowers in the garden alive and makes them grow. So, in her mind, she is free in the garden. She and the yellow bird.
But the Nazis come closer and closer and finally, they want to search the barn, the loft. Roza must make the decision whether to take Shira into the forest and live rough with other Jews and keep Shira with her or send her with the nuns at the convent and hope she will be safer there. Living rough in the forest is very dangerous even for adults, never mind for children, but if they are apart, Roza won’t know if Shira is safe or not.
The dangers Roza faces in the forest are scary, but there are people with their children there. She wants to bring Shira back to her.
Shira goes through so much at the convent. A different name, A different hair color and a kerchief to cover her roots. But there is a violin left by a former student there. And one of the nuns knows a music teacher who is thrilled to have such a student. So young and so gifted. Each time the Nazi official comes to inspect the convent, he asks that Shira plays for him during his lunch. Everyone is nervous the whole time he is there. Shira doesn’t understand why she is considered different than the other girls. She’s just a little girl who likes music. Why do they cover her hair and change the color of it? Why did they change her name? What will her mother think of these new prayers she’s had to learn?
The Nazis attack the groups in the forest. The convent is bombed and several people are killed and some are evacuated. Will Roza and Shira ever see each other again?
This is a highly moving story based on actual things that happened to the Jews in Poland during WWII. For a long time, the people who lived these stories didn’t talk about their experiences because it was too painful. Now, some of the stories are being told because they realize that if they don’t tell them now the stories will be lost as more and more of them die. So many stories have already been lost.
Highly recommended.
The Yellow Bird Sings is a heart-breaking story about a very hard time in history. People were secluded in hiding to save their lives, and the lives of their loved ones. Not only were they in danger but the people hiding them were as well. It was a scary time to be alive.
But it is also a heartwarming story, as the reader witnesses the strength, love, and resilience of this amazing mother and her beautiful, talented daughter. I was emotionally drawn to the pair as they just tried to survive from day to day, praying with them that today was not going to be the day that they died.
The writing in the book is truly remarkable. I’m impressed that this is a debut novel and I will be anxiously awaiting Jennifer’s next book.
Jennifer Rosner’s debut novel, The Yellow Bird Sings is a haunting WWII story of what a mother will do to make sure her daughter stays safe even if it means separating from her. This story is told through the mother, Róża, and her daughter, Shira. Róża makes the very difficult decision to have Shira taken to a Catholic orphanage in 1941 as she realizes her daughter would have a better chance to survive. This story is gut wrenching. I will be thinking about it for a long time. Thank you NetGalley and Flatiron Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
When The Yellow Bird Sings is a novel about mothers and daughters, love and loss, cruelty and kindness all against the background of Poland in 1941 through 1944 and then New York City in 1965.
The author has written a beautiful but heartbreaking novel that would resonate with most readers of WWII historical fiction, as a mother I really felt it’s heartaches and losses.
The novel opens with Roza along with her 5 year old daughter Shira hiding in a barn during the time that Nazi’s were everywhere. They have tortured and killed many Jewish people and Roza saw her parents murdered and lost her husband as he fought against the Germans. She fled to the countryside and has been hiding here for quite a while, it is the summer of 1941. Roza is determined to keep her daughter, Shira, safe at all costs.
Roza and Shira are forced to hide in the extremely tight space of the barn loft, burrowing into the hay at any noise heard. This is particularly hard for a 5 year old and especially for Shira who has music always in her heart and loves to sing. Roza’s grandfather made violins, she herself is a cellist and her husband a violinist. They had already suspected that Shira had a gift for music even at this early age.
To help Shira cope with the confines within the barn along with hunger, heat and then cold, she imagines a small yellow bird which she holds in her hands. She takes care of her imaginary pet, silently sings to it and imagines where they will one day go. Roza encourages this mind play as it seems to help calm her daughter.
The man who owns the barn has let them stay but he has other motives besides kindness driving his decision. He occasionally brings them food and then later his wife begins to feel sorry for the little girl. She takes her out for short walks in the farmyard and lets her pet the cows, she brings food for them but Roza insists that Shira eat most of it.
At a later point in the story it is no longer safe to stay in the barn as the Nazi’s have been burning down the barns of any farmer known to be helping or hiding Jews in any way. She makes a decision that she will question for the rest of her life. She allows Shira to be taken to a convent and she herself makes her way in the countryside.While she knows that Shira will have music in her life “The mother, too, hears music in her head. The melody is discordant and accusatory. When she covers her ears with her hands, a different tune asserts itself, more painful for its sweet, rocking lyricism. The lullaby tells of a hen who sets out for glasses of tea to bring to her waiting chicks. It is the girl’s favorite, and it is accompanied by the lilt of a kept promise. The hen returns.”
As in most stories of this terrible time we are reminded of the conditions that the hideouts in the countryside faced, starvation, cold, constant moving, isolation, etc. Shira, though kept safe, has huge adjustments to make while living as a hide out in the Catholic convent, all is not easy for her.
This novel is well written and flows well. I found the use of expressive imagery in the form of the little yellow bird both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. I think any readers of WWII historical fiction will want to read this book, the characters are very well described and I felt very connected to them.
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley. It is set to publish March 3, 2020.
Music and love course through this beautiful novel, twin rivers of wonder. Jennifer Rosner has written a book that will break your heart, and then put it back together again, a little larger than before.