Anna and the Swallow Man

by Gavriel Savit

Kraków, 1939. A million marching soldiers and a thousand barking dogs. This is no place to grow up. Anna Łania is just seven years old when the Germans take her father, a linguistics professor, during their purge of intellectuals in Poland. She’s alone.

And then Anna meets the Swallow Man. He is a mystery, strange and tall, a skilled deceiver with more than a little magic up his sleeve. And when the soldiers in the streets look at him, they see what he wants them to see.

The Swallow Man is not Anna’s father—she knows that very well—but she also knows that, like her father, he’s in danger of being taken, and like her father, he has a gift for languages: Polish, Russian, German, Yiddish, even Bird. When he summons a bright, beautiful swallow down to his hand to stop her from crying, Anna is entranced. She follows him into the wilderness.

Over the course of their travels together, Anna and the Swallow Man will dodge bombs, tame soldiers, and even, despite their better judgment, make a friend. But in a world gone mad, everything can prove dangerous. Even the Swallow Man.

Destined to become a classic, Gavriel Savit’s stunning debut reveals life’s hardest lessons while celebrating its miraculous possibilities.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction, Historical, War, Audiobook, World War II

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 26, 2016

About the author

Gavriel Savit is a New York Times Bestselling author. His award-winning writing has been shortlisted for the National Book Award, and has been translated into nineteen languages. As a performer, he has appeared on and off-Broadway, and on stages around the world.

Reviews

[Maja (The Nocturnal Library) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gavriel Savit’s literary debut is one of those rare, gorgeous little gems that leave you completely in awe of the author’s talent. Savit is incredibly skillful with words, a true artist fully aware of the importance of every single sentence. Each one is a small work of art, poetic and beautiful in its simplicity.

The best thing about Anna and the Swallow Man is that it’s told entirely from a child’s perspective, a world seen through a seven-year-old’s eyes. It is a bleak, desperate world; the war is slowly brewing and people are disappearing left and right, including Anna’s father, who is an academic. Anna is left in the care of the town’s doctor, her father’s acquaintance, likely because her father thought that she would be most safe in the hands of a German. But the good doctor abandons Anna that very afternoon, leaving her to fend for herself on the streets of Krakow in 1939.

Swallow Man is a nameless wanderer, a man with the ability to adapt and survive at the worst of times. He takes Anna with him like it’s the most natural thing to do, but he never becomes one of those empty, unrealistic characters. He is, in fact, very complex, and as the story progresses and we learn more about him, we realize that he’s not always very likeable or pure-hearted. He too has many issues to work through on his journey with Anna.

The war plays a big part in this book, but solely as the motivator. It’s constantly in the background, something to run from and something to adapt to, but it never quite touches our Anna. It’s almost like yet another secondary character, constantly present, but never overwhelming. Overall, theirs is an emotional journey that brings trial after trial and story after sad story, all seen through the eyes of a child, but interpreted through those of an adult. What a wonderful, wondrous thing Savit has done by showing us something for what it was, but through a lens that makes it look softer and so much different.

Anna and the Swallow Man is a book that will leave you breathless and in complete wonderment. The quality of this work is at the highest level, and its soul is brilliant and simply too gorgeous for words. It may be Savit’s first literary work, but it is a testament to his tremendous talent and a promise of more delightful books to come.

A copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher for review purposes. No considerations, monetary or otherwise, have influenced the opinions expressed in this review.

[Beatrice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book took me by surprise and impressed me consistently. Weaving elements of fairytale, folktale, historical fiction, magical realism, and the precarious balance between the adulthood and childhood world, Anna and the Swallow Man is a book of many facets that is nevertheless cohesive. The Swallow Man is one of the most intriguing characters I have read about, and the mix of admiration and fear that I feel towards him is quite unique. Anna's understanding of the Swallow Man and his world was filtered through his careful constructions, the buffers he created for her out of simultaneous love and fear. These elements of deceit with the purpose of protection reminded me of Life is Beautiful, also set around the same time period, in which a father pretends, for the sake of his son, that they are merely "playing a game" while truly being in a concentration camp. Anna and the Swallow Man offered a similar dynamic between adult and child yet it exposed the reader to the bleak truth by means of subtle implications, a quiet dialogue between author and reader. I find it admirable and complex that this book is suitable for readers of all ages -- the younger ones will perhaps see things more clearly from Anna's perspective, while older ones will likely more clearly notice both existing realities, that of Anna's and that of the Swallow Man's.

Ultimately Savit writes to an audience he assumes is intelligent, and this, in part, is why the book's elements of folklore and magical realism are so successful.
The language of this book is careful and precise -- its writing style, though a bit convoluted at first, has an undeniable voice and flow to it that further places this book in its own sort of category altogether.

I loved Anna and the Swallow Man, and I am so excited for it to be released into the world. I'm looking forward to recommending it all over my YouTube channel...

---

Re-read this in honor of the book's release. Again, can't wait to share it with others.

[Stacey | prettybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anna and the Swallow Man is stunning. It's the first thing you'll notice about the book – the captivating cover accompanied by instantly beautiful writing. It is among the few literary young adult novels I've read and it won't be the last.

Anna and the Swallow Man retells a story we've heard a million times; one that needs to continue to be told, and it makes you feel like you're hearing it for the first time. You feel the sadness and anger and confusion that our young protagonist feels, seeing the world change through her own eyes.

7-year-old Anna is incredibly close to her father – master of languages and lover of people – until, on the brink of World War II, he leaves her with a friend and never returns. As Anna worryingly waits for her father, she stumbles upon the Swallow Man – or you could say that he stumbles upon her. He's a mysterious fellow who's just as talented in linguistics as her father. She trusts him, because there is no one else left to trust, and they set off on what will be a never-ending journey for the pair.

As it's a huge part of the story, the importance and significance of language constantly came through. Anna and her new friend are fluent in many languages: Polish, Russian, German, Yiddish, French – and even Bird. It is entwined with their identities. And Gavriel Savit shows how their identities can – and need – to change in these troubled times. Along their journey, they make a friend, dodge terrifying soldiers, and always manage to keep on walking. They never stop teaching each other about the world, using colourful imagery to describe why Germans, Polish, and Russians struggle to coexist.

Anna and the Swallow Man is a poignant story, but also at times hopeful and optimistic. If you love young adult or adult historical fiction and want to pick up something a little bit different, Anna and the Swalllow Man is for you.

"A friend is not someone to whom you give the things you need when the world is at war. A friend is someone to whom you give the things that you need when the world is at peace."

Thank you to the publisher for providing this book for review!

I also reviewed this book over on Pretty Books.

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

i had a full review of this written on my blog from 6 years ago that i simply never posted, and i was going to just copy and paste that and throw a small parade or block party to celebrate my innovations in the field of laziness, but then...

the first two sentences of it..."i genuinely love historical fiction. it’s my favorite genre."

such a lie i cannot in good faith repost.

i remember this being good, though.

part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago

[Claire Talbot · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me start by saying this is a very strange book, that upset me in several ways. I picked it up because of the comparisons to "The Book Thief", which I loved. I found it disturbing on several levels. One - Anna, aged 7, is left to fend for herself after her father, a talented linguistics professor is seized by the Germans. Anna waits for a day or so, and is spurned by neighbors, and former friends of her fathers. Locked out of their apartment, her mother long dead, she heads for the streets. There, she meets up with a mysterious man, who also speaks many languages, and calms her by having a beautiful bird come and land on his hand. She decides to follow him, and for years they evade the war, scavenging the Polish countryside.
Mystery 1: One, I found her complete and total reliance on this adult male stranger a little creepy. The swallow man as Anna calls him, controls their every move. She must "forget" her identity as Anna, learn to speak "Road" a new language he has devised, and begin a life of deception and survival. After a time, the swallow man reluctantly allows a third party to travel with them, the Jewish man Reb Hirschl, who brings some music and joy back into Anna's life. While traveling with the two men, Anna is out in the woods going to the bathroom when a peddler happens upon her. Immediately you call tell that Anna has become his prey. After spending a day telling stories, the Reb and the Swallow Man argue about a course of action, both wanting to protect Anna, but through different courses of action. More disturbing is the peddler claims to recognize the Swallow man, and offers his wares for "some time alone" with Anna. Equally creepy is the "meat" that the peddler offers them - a human arm. The swallow man disappears in the night, kills the peddler, and Reb who is disgusted by what he sees as the swallow mans betrayal of a moral code - a point where he becomes "a spiller of blood, a taker of life - all because the peddler recognized him." Reb leaves the trio, and a week later they find that he has hung himself.
Mystery #2: The swallow man takes pills. Lots of them - religiously. After discovering Reb's body, they stay in an abandoned house, Swallow Man runs out of pills, and appears to loose his mind. You would think that the pills are for a depression or anxiety condition. Not so. Later, as a last resort, Anna finds the prescription for 130 mg of potassium iodide, which is traditionally used to protect the thyroid from radiation poisoning, or as an expectorant. Swallow Man is described as being mentally ill. This did not make sense to me. Another truly abhorrent scene, Anna goes to a pharmacy with the prescription for the Swallow Man, and is forced to undress and "assume positions" for the pleasure of the pharmacist.
Mystery #3: After getting to Gdansk, Anna overhears a conversation that would indicate that "Swallow Man" is also a professor. And, and years of caring for Anna, he takes her to a man in a boat, who takes her away, presumably to freedom and a new life outside of occupied Poland. He also alludes to the fact that she can kill this mysterious fisherman, the same way he killed the peddler, if necessary.
Mystery #4: Unbelievable. It was totally unbelievable to me that this older man and a young girl were able to travel about war torn, occupied Poland for years without getting caught, shot, etc.
Mystery #5: the baby shoe? Greta? did I miss the clues as to how we were supposed to understand these very important references?????

Sorry, but this was no "Book Thief" for me. I also never cared for the Swallow Man - he was just too mysterious, too cold, and you did not learn enough about him as a character to really care. Anna also was supposed to be 7 when the ordeal began, but did not really act like a 7 year old. I did not feel I really knew her, but instead read about vivid descriptions of the travels of this mysterious pair. I just had no connection personally with these characters. The whole thing was bizarre.

[Snotchocheez · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

I'm not sure what to make of this thing. I'm mostly pretty impressed, but my emotions run the gamut from WOW! to WHAT THE?!? Ultimately it left me bewildered, but it's the kind of bafflement that keeps replaying in my head, begging me to figure out what I just read. I guess I need to ask a kid. After all, the first Library of Congress categorization for Anna and the Swallow Man reads: 1. Poland---History---Occupation, 1939-1945---Juvenile Fiction

Okay, yeah, sure,. It's just a Poland-centric The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, right?

Well, not quite. Yeah, they both deal with the holocaust and they both are told with a child's viewpoint, (And they're both marketed to younger readers, though I cannot possibly imagine a young reader getting past a couple of extremely gruesome scenes nor comprehending (or appreciating) the allegory/Polish folklore/magical realism of Anna and the Swallow Man).

The story itself is pretty straightforward: In November, 1939, the Gestapo arrives in Krakow, Poland to round up Jews and intellectuals, one of whom being Anna Lania's father, a linguistics professor, who she never sees again post-sweep. Having no other immediate family in Krakow, Anna is forced to take to the streets to avoid the Gestapo herself. After several days of loneliness and hunger, she meets a mysterious, tall spindly man with a predilection toward communicating with birds, especially swallows. The Swallow Man convinces her that the only way she can stay alive during wartime is to avoid the Wolves (the Germans) and the Bears (the Russians) and. live out in the forest.

The confusion (for me) lies with this bird guy. Where did he come from? How did he find Anna? Why does he seem omniscient? Some things are answered.as the novel progresses, while other beguiling questions keep popping up about the guy's very erratic behavior.

I enjoyed this quite a bit throughout, despite my mounting confusion (with the Swallow Man and his actions). Gavriel Savit writes with ethereal beauty and optimistic ebullience and strikes a balance (perhaps in deference to his potential audience) of keeping things hopeful yet keeping it "real". Despite the overwhelming bleakness going on around Anna and her protector, the novel (thankfully) never becomes too awful to read (though it comes perilously close a few times). Now I just need to find someone to explain to me that ending...

[Eve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 2.5

I'm still SO confused about this novel. But I don't really care enough about it to go sleuthing around on the interwebs.

I would say don't waste your money on this perplexing piece of literature, but there is a small chance that Gavriel Savit is a mastermind and I'm just too much of a dumbass to understand what was going on.

So.

Do with that what you will.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a slim, beautifully written little book. The first half is wonderful, and really gives you a sense for how confusing the beginning of the war would have been for a child. It's almost fairy tale like. But as the book, and the war, go on the ethereal writing stopped working for me. I needed to know some concrete things, none of which were answered, leaving me ultimately very frustrated.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘There is no labyrinth as treacherous as that with neither paths nor walls.’

When seven-year-old Anna is placed in the company of a neighbor while her father attends to some business, she never thought that would be the last she would see of him. The year is 1939 during the very beginning of World War II and the Germans are beginning their round up of scholars and Anna’s father is a professor at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Unsure what to do, Anna turns to a mysterious stranger she names Swallow Man after he displays his proficiency with languages including the ability to speak to birds. Intrigued by this man, Anna begins to follow him and the two stay together, walking across Poland, for many years.

“A riverbank goes wherever the riverbank does. […] I’ll be the riverbank and you be the river.”

During this duo’s travels, the Swallow Man teaches Anna many lessons, cultivating her ability to survive with or without him. The two that bear repeating most: “To be found is to be gone forever,” and “One can’t be found as long as one keeps moving.” And keep hidden and moving they do. Within this short novel, years pass and it becomes more and more difficult to continue to survive in a world that has transformed around them, blanketing them in war. Throughout their time together, the Swallow Man persists in fascinating Anna with his perpetual crypticness and continues to keep the reader curious about the circumstances which brought him to this point.

‘It was very difficult for her to take her attention away from the thin man, even for a moment. Somewhere, tickling the back of her brain, she felt a certainty that if she wasn’t constantly watching this fellow, she would miss whole miracles, whole wonders – things that he let fall incidentally off himself as other men might shed dandruff.’

There was something supremely enchanting about this well-written story. It combined the heartrending historical aspects of The Book Thief with the magical realism of The Snow Child. Unfortunately, Savit built up a mesmerizing tale of survival only to lose steam and fizzle out at the end. The hazy inscrutability that is cast over this story leads to the magical feeling of mysteriousness but by the end I was expecting that haze to clear and it never did. There was one particular moment where the haze somewhat cleared and the magic dispelled: when Anna, in an attempt to obtain the medicine the Swallow Man required, agreed to remove her clothes for the pharmacist since she didn’t have any money. He didn’t physically assault her but just the act of being naked for the first time in front of a stranger was a horrifying experience for Anna and a horrible experience to have to read about. It left a terrible taste in my mouth about the whole thing and felt like a poorly placed piece attempting to shock the reader when the story has been nothing but demure up until that point.

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anna's father is a professor in Krakow, he sometimes leaves Anna with a friend and returns formatter later. But this time he doesn't return, he is taken in the intellectual purge of the Nazis. So Anna waits, but then knowing something is wrong, but not what, she meets the Swallow Man. A very tall, thin man who can speak all the languages she and her father can, but he can also speak bird. So she follows him and he will teach her how to survive in this strange new landscape.

Not very good at rating children's books, don't read enough of them to feel confident. Seems to be marketed for those over twelve but I feel it is a good and starting primer to introduce children to the Holocaust. There is a little magic, nature talks, folklore, stories and many survival skills. There are of course, dead bodies and one part would give me a little pause, but this story did keep me captivated. Wanted to find out who the Swallow Man really was, and we do by book's end. I would, however read this with my child so I could answer questions and provide explanations. All in all a very interesting story.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

To my thinking, this book exemplifies astonishing achievement in writing, both on the literal and symbolic levels.

There are only three characters for most of the book; who they are and my best guess at who they are on a “meta” level is as follows: Anna, a seven-year-old girl when we first meet her, personifies both innocence and later innocence destroyed; The Swallow Man, a Werner Heisenberg-like character who, I think, represents the uneasy balance between knowledge (especially, technological advancement) and consideration for ethicality; and Reb Hirschl, who supplies the moral conscience of the story.

The story begins in November 1939 in Kraków, Poland, after Anna’s father has been arrested during a roundup of intellectuals and academics. Because her father was a linguist, Anna is multilingual in a sophisticated way:

“Anna knew that different languages dealt in nuances of expression with different levels of explicitness— in one tongue an idiom might lay out quite directly what the speaker meant to communicate, whereas in another, via the legerdemain of a self-effacing metaphor, a depth of feeling or a sly opinion might very well only be hinted at.”

Further, she has learned that while the same word often connotes something different in each language, the word war “is a heavy word in every language.” And she soon gets caught right in the middle of it.

Alone after her father is taken, she begins to follow a tall man who saw that she was abandoned, and who tried to cheer her up by calling down a swallow to her. When she asks his name, he tells her to call him The Swallow Man; real names are too dangerous. They roam the countryside always in hiding, living off the land when they can, and begging - or as a last choice, stealing - when they cannot.

Swallow Man carries only a few possessions with him. One is a large bottle of pills he takes three times a day (for an unknown condition that is revealed as having great significance toward the end of the story). Another is a little girl’s shoe, which we can only assume belonged to a child lost to him. Anna cannot replace this little girl, but unwittingly steps into her place; indeed, she says to him as she implores him to allow her to accompany him:

“I know it’s not good for a girl to be without a father these days. But is it any better for a father to be without a daughter?”

As they travel, the Swallow Man gives Anna lessons, not only in science and geography and biology, but in the art of survival. And in this respect he teaches her a new language, which he calls Road. He tells her their goal is the preservation of an endangered species - a very rare bird that both the Germans [“Wolves”] and Russians [“Bears”] want to find and devour so they will be stronger. Anna asks what makes this bird special and the Swallow Man explains:

“It’s a bird. A bird that flies and sings. And if the Wolves and Bears have their way, no one will ever fly or sing in precisely the same way that it does. Never again. Does it need to be more special than that?”

Does he mean the Jews? Does he mean humaneness, or innocence, or freedom generally? It wasn’t clear to me, but the point could apply to any of them.

Eventually, the two are joined, largely at Anna’s insistence, by another person trying to hide from the Germans: a naive and improbable escapee from a Jewish ghetto, Reb Hirschl. Reb Hirschl’s interactions with Anna actually help to demonstrate one of the Swallow Man’s lessons that he himself seemed to have forgotten:

“Men who try to understand the world without the help of children are like men who try to bake bread without the help of yeast.”

The Swallow Man later admits to Anna: “I had lost sight . . . of the fact that survival in and of itself is not sufficient to support every life equally.”

But eventually, Reb Hirschl, with his censure for the Swallow Man’s “road ethics,” comes between Anna and Swallow Man. He seemed to me in a way to be a one-man Greek chorus.

Ethical issues aren’t the only direct concern. When Swallow Man runs out of his white pills, he starts to turn into someone Anna doesn’t recognize, speaking a language she doesn’t yet know. Increasingly, she must determine what is true from “shadow language,” like that of the gnomon. She doesn’t always understand: nothing was as it appeared, and magical explanations didn’t seem out of the question.

And as the inexorable destruction of the war grinds on, all of them make decisions that cannot be reversed. The destruction of the world at large is echoed in the destruction of the very essence of who they thought they were, and of the qualities they were trying so hard to preserve.

Discussion: The empty spaces in the story are vast. While we are literally plunged into the landscape of WWII, across Poland and into parts of Russia, "war" is spoken of only rarely. The specifics of the Holocaust are just intimated. God is never mentioned. But what makes us human and *keeps* us human - this is a major theme nevertheless.

Savit, in the interview cited below, mentioned the influence of his Jewish education on his appreciation for the polysemy of texts. And in fact, Hebrew scriptures must contain only consonants, forcing the reader into a creative process by having to determine contextual connections and inflections. The lack of textuality in this book also adds to the impact of the story; emotional experiences gain power by not being forced to fit inside the reason-heavy and mostly linear framework mandated by conventional literature.

You could spend an entire book club meeting on each chapter of this book. In fact, I read the last chapter, with its brilliantly constructed title, four times, each instance coming away with a new understanding of what had happened.

Evaluation: This stunning book requires readers to engage in the text more than most; one must not only fill in the blank spaces with what is generally known, as with details about World War II, but also with what can be imagined, such as who and what these characters really are. Reading this book is a thrilling collaborative process between the author and the reader. I hope even those with “Holocaust fatigue” will consider this book; the tragedy is subtle, the imagery is spectacular, and the story is truly sui generis.

Note: This is published by an imprint for young readers, and is marketed in the Young Adult section of bookstores. Should it be there? Not in my opinion. The author had this to say about the matter in an interview:

"It’s interesting how when you write a story that’s centered around a young woman, it gets received as being on the more juvenile side, and that’s an unfortunate reality of the way we think of women’s narratives in the world right now. But, it also sort of opened the book up a little bit. I didn’t immediately think of it as a child’s narrative, but I do think it’s fundamentally a story about a magical time and mindset in childhood, the immediacy of which a lot of us forget as we get older.

I also think we are very fortunate right now that what has traditionally been considered generic fiction—speculative, detective, children’s—is falling by the wayside. Young adult narratives are en vogue. There’s no shame in reading a book we enjoy.”

[emi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Men who try to understand the world without the help of children are like men who try to bake bread without the help of yeast.

That quote.

This is definitely an important book, worth a read, whether you like it or not.

After finishing this book, I really couldn't quite describe my thoughts on it, hence the three stars.

It was a mixture of confusion and sadness.

But, looking back upon it now, I think it's safe to say that my feelings towards it have stabilized enough to write an adequate review.

Or so I think...

My thoughts on:

The plot:

The plot was, in the most part, slightly lacking in action, and focusing more on the characters and their relationships with one another.

I thought it gave a unique, and very moving perspective to the novel - focusing on the characters, individually, and the war's effect on them.

However, people who prefer high intensity battles and thrilling scenes, might be a little let down, but not completely, for despite the novel's attention to feelings and characters, it does also contain some very exciting parts too.

The characters:

The characters were what really brought this book together.

From Anna's caring heart and curiousness, to Reb Hirshl's humour and courage - all the way to the mysterious persona of the Swallow Man, who remains a mystery throughout the novel.

Despite their differences, they came together, in hope of surviving through this monstrous war.

I appreciated that this book was character driven, because it perfectly exemplified (in my opinion) that each life lost in the war was not a mere number that could easily be forgotten and lost among numerous other numbers of deaths.

Each person taken away by the horror of warfare is a complex maze - with a heart and a brain.

A sisiter, a brother, a mother, a father, a son, a daughter, a wife, a husband... all getting torn apart by literally one thing, made up of so many little horrors.

Have you heard of it?

It goes by the name of World War II.

It was horrible, if you're not already aware of that.

War tore people apart from one another through intolerance and greed, and the loss of sight of what is important.

The writing:

My, oh my, the writing was very beautiful.

I read a translation in Polish, but from the quotes I read online, the English version is just as stunning.

The Feel:

The novel is written in a an omnipresent narrative, but follows the thoughts and experiences of a young girl.

This once again, gives a very interesting perspective to war.

You watch as Anna's innocence is slowly lost, and watch war and desperation shape her into a completely different person.

It reveals the corruption of children's minds - and how they aged prematurely, forced, against their own will, to see, hear and experience things no child should be allowed to.

You watch her get sucked into the world of war.

And the saddest part is, that this is all true.

That's exactly what war did to children.

Overall, this book was very different from anything that I ever read. It was a bizarre read - but based on a real event (WWII).

The ending had me even more puzzled.

But maybe that's a good thing.

It left me hopeful.

And, in many cases, that was all that was left for people like Anna during the war.

However, I found this book to be very allegorical - which resulted in a lot of confusion for me (hence, I couldn't decide how to rate this book).

Also, many questions were left unanswered, and I was just really quite uncertain of what to think at times.

Maybe that was the point of the book, but it didn't exactly work for me.

It might work for some people, but I would I have expected there to be a sequel - to straighten matters out, and to develop a better understanding of many aspects of the novel.

But, then again, problems are rarely answered in War, and everything is chaotic and confusing.

There is a huge disparity between the reality of war and the way we perceive it.

This book gave an insight into what life was like for a young girl during a horrendous, life changing thing.

[Rashika (is tired) · Rating 4 out of 5]

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

I don’t read a lot of historical fiction but I absolutely adore middle grade novels so when I heard about Anna and the Swallow Man, I knew I was going to have a lot of feels and would probably need a lot of tissues. The book; however, turned out to be not exactly what I expected. When I read the blurb, I thought that Anna and the Swallow Man would be right in the middle of the war instead of spending their time skirting its edges. Don’t get me wrong, you can tell that there is a war going on and the war definitely impacts their life, it’s just I thought their circumstances would be different.

Having said that, Anna and the Swallow Man is a beautiful, lyrical book and one I wouldn’t fail to recommend to someone who really wants to be sucker punched in their feels (because who doesn’t want that?)

Here are a bunch of reasons to read this book

1. Anna. She is one of the saddest main characters I’ve read in middle grade and Savrit works magic in the way he writes her. She is a very aware child but the way Savrit writes her constantly reminds readers that she IS a child no matter how smart she is. It’s why my heart constantly broke for her and her struggle.

2 Secondary Characters. The Swallow Man is a wonderfully complex character. He, at the beginning of the novel, is someone who comes off as a savior but as the novel progresses, we find out that there is a whole lot more to him. He isn’t a perfect character and there were parts during the middle of the book where I wanted the ground to swallow him whole (I am so clever) because he was really getting to me. By the end of the novel, I liked him as a character since there is SO much to him. Reb Hirschl one the other hand was my favorite character in the world. Okay perhaps not in the world but in this book, yes. He broke my heart a million times over and made me smile like no one else in the book.

3. The Journey. Or the journey to nowhere as it should more accurately be called. Throughout the entire book, Anna and the Swallow Man are walking to somewhere yet we don’t know where. The Swallow Man tells Anna that they are trying to find a bird that is almost extinct but a lot of the time, they just seem to go on and on in circle. Their journey is full of many hardships and even though they are never in the middle of the war, the war is never forgotten. It impacts them when they run out of food and slowly start to starve, it impacts them when they attempt to cross German borders, it impacts them when they come upon mass graves. Even though the story doesn’t seem to be about the war, it IS. Savrit weaves in the war into their journey and as the war rages on, we become more and more aware of the horrible effects the war has. The book spirals into darkness and starts to tear open our hearts. It loses its innocent charm and turns into something darker.

So hopefully I have convinced you to read this book… if not OOPS? I TRIED, OKAY. I did my best. I am going to go home and sleep now because emotions.

Note that I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

[Sarah Churchill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lyrical writing based on a fairy tale and set during WWII... this book should have made my head and heart implode with happiness. Unfortunately I struggled to get as immersed in this as I would have liked. The journey of Anna and her Swallow Man was a gruelling one, walking across countries over the span of years (no idea how long, there's a lack of any kind of time reference) through all seasons. I should have felt the exhaustion, the cold and the hunger. But I really didn't.

I think that the writing is lovely, and the multi-linguality of the main characters was fantastic. I love the innocence of Anna, and the Swallow Man's way of explaining war to her. But beyond that it lost me, because I didn't really take anything else away from it. I truly expected to love this book, but it was pretty wordy in parts, lacked a lot of emotion and the journey was pretty uneventful given the time and risks they were taking. What WAS there was sweet and the relationship between the two was clearly character building for both MCs, but I definitely wanted more.

[♛ may · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is unexpectedly brilliant. i went in with a mindset that it would be a historic book taking place in WWII but its so much more complex than that

after anna's father doesn't return to her, the seven year old girl meets a strange man who can speak in every language that she knows (with the addition of one), knows pretty much everything about everything, and doesn't have much of an identity but goes by the "Swallow Man"

it follows them as the Swallow Man takes it upon himself to protect anna during these horrific times. we see them travel through long distances in attempts to escape the coming war and i thought the writing was absolutely captivating.

it's so hard to describe this book because it's a mix of historic fiction with magic realism and slight fairytale but in the end you're still left muddled at what just took place.

what i truly love about this book is that the author reveals these subtle little details for the reader to gather and use to make sense of whats happening. it's heartfelt and the dynamic between anna and the swallow man is so wonderful to see come to life throughout their journey.

there are moments of tragedy that left me gutted, the truth of how dirty and dark and scary war is, and the ending that just,,,,,,I NEED ANSWERS TO ALL MY QUESTIONS

this definitely isnt a book for everyone. i know a lot of people probably won't click with this style, but i am so enchanted by this book and these characters

i JUST WISH THERE WAS A FOLLOW UP BOOK OR EXPLANATION FOR WHAT HAPPENS AFTER BC JKLFJASLKJLAL

[Summer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Later rerated to*: 4 Stars

*I'm rerating a lot of the books I read in the past to fit my current taste. Most of the time it's downrating books that I thought I really liked at the time but there are a few exceptions. :) And it'd be too much to try to reflect these changes on my blog, so the ratings will remain as the original ones on Xingsings.

4.5 Stars, Completed December 31, 2015



“I need a SparkNotes interpretation of this” was the first thought that popped into my head when I finished page 232.

Initially, I thought this was going to be a light historical fiction novel set during the early years of World War II (but then again when is a book about WWII ever light?), but I’m quite surprised by how this read more like a fairy tale mixed with some magical realism. And strangely, as I was flipping through each page I had these sudden urges to recognize every rhetorical device and wanted to annotate the entire thing. Anna and the Swallow Man rekindled the literature student in me (in a pleasant way).

In Anna and the Swallow Man, readers meet young, precocious Anna. Her father is a linguistic professor and naturally he knows many languages. In fact, so many that Anna doesn’t know what her father’s native tongue is. She grows up not really knowing how to identify herself. All she has are the many ways to say Anna. Anja. Khannaleh. Anke. Anushka. Anouk. But then one day her father leaves her in the care of an old friend and he never returns. Soon after, with the war wearing down the civilians, the hospitality her father’s friend once has dissipates and she finds herself at a level of despair and fear she’s never anticipated to experience before. All changes when she meets the mysterious Swallow Man. Despite his intimidating looks, Anna grows attached to this tall and peculiar man because he’s just like her and her father, one that is skilled in many tongues. They embark on a seemingly aimless journey and he teaches her his language, Road. A language that uses deceit for the purpose of protection and survival.

In a rapid riot of conflicting languages, she answered all his questions.

In Yiddish she said, “I am better now,” and then in Russian, “I do not think my father will come back.” In German she said, “I am myself,” and then in Polish, “And now I am waiting for you.”

Aside from the deep messages the story presents, the writing is probably my favorite part of this book. The prose was quite unusual but very beautiful. It was not easy to read at times since Savit really enjoys expressing things implicitly through riddles and a lot of uncommon rhetoric, but almost every detail seemed to serve a purpose in the story. Most of the book was told in thoughts and long paragraphs; there was very seldom any dialogue. But the lengthy passages were appropriate for a story like this.

Savit has a compelling voice and great flow in his writing, but the story did drag with the first third of the book, which is the only reason why I’m deducting half a star. Like the premise suggests this band of vagrants walk for several years with no apparent goal (or so readers thought initially; we later gain more insight behind everything). But as more is explained and a certain character is introduced it picks up and becomes rather fast paced.

As for why I think this made me jump back to my high school literature days was the usage of different perspectives between our two consistent characters, Anna and the Swallow Man. Each offers an important view for a certain type of reader. The non literature student/ya loving bookworm in me instantly felt connected to Anna’s naivety, innocence, and her outlook of the consequences of war and her adventure with the Swallow Man. On the other hand, the adult and more experienced reader (and old literature student) in me could see both Anna’s and the messages behind the Swallow Man’s clever wit and insight. These two characters provided two very different perspectives, making this a read fit for readers of all ages.

All the characters were rather simply built but they possessed a depth behind their words and thoughts as the story progressed. It was hard to not grow attached to them.

And deep behind the story there’s also some subtle, hidden messages about humanity’s true nature. How the consequences of war can change someone so. Or motivate them to be who they are. There were lots of thought provoking concepts explored in this.

And why I began this review with my plea for a SparkNotes annotation of this story is because by the end there were still riddles and questions unanswered. The conclusion was cloaked in mysteriousness, and there was much left for the reader’s interpretation.

Even so, there’s no doubt that Savit is a marvelous story teller. Anna and the Swallow Man reminded me a mix between critically acclaimed works such as The Glass Castle , The Boy in the Striped Pajamas , and Night . This was magical realism at its finest. I highly recommend this fabulous debut.

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Special thanks to Knopf for allowing me to participate in this blog tour and sending me this review copy of Anna and the Swallow Man. In no way did this affect my reading experience or honest review.

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[reading is my hustle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is good. Very good. The story is set during WWII and told through the perspective of a seven year old girl. It is many things but I think it works best as an allegorical tale. There are bits of magical realism spread throughout the story and the third person narrative gives the story a folk tale feeling. It pulls you in and wants you to listen.

This is an exemplary story about the horrors of war.
Recommended.

[Debi Cates · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A word is a tiny movement of time
devoted to the conjuring aloud of small corner of what is...
But there was no significance to anything that was,
in that moment,
only what was not."

This is a book for young adults? Teens? I'm astounded.

And I'm jubilant, if this is the kind of book that is geared toward young people now. It proves there must be readers with sharp empathy (and excellent teachers) that appreciate insightful writing with a captivating plot, one that looks at Nazi Germany with unflinching horror and also at humanity's potential for wonderments of generosity.

The picture of the author on the backflap, from ten years ago, looks like he isn't more than 25 years old himself. That is another thing I am taking a moment to rejoice, that someone so young can have within him something to gladden even a weary 65 year old. That a young Jewish girl, a tall enigmatic German genius, and a faithful Jewish musician can together, by walking and staying forever on the move, cross Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and even Russia, and perhaps stay alive--by being unnoticed--in a 1939 world gone the maddest we pray that it will ever go.

No surprise that Savit's writing has been shortlisted for the National Book Award and has been translated into nineteen languages.

It's a dark, heartening story, one that embraces "...stories, not as absolute, irrevocably factual truths that simply don't exist, but as flaccid allegories or metaphors," once more made afresh for us all.

[Rikke · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I enjoyed the story of little Anna and her formidable swallow man a lot. It's one of those rare gems that you feel very lucky to come across. And it's definitely a gorgeous addition to the WW2 stories too. The beautiful cover comes off befitting to that of a children's book, and it's probably marketed at middle graders/YA. Yet, IMO it's one of those stories that will very likely appeal to readers of all ages; though maybe adults and more mature teens especially.

Did I expect this to be a favorite? No. I wasn't at all prepared for it. The story is simply stunning!! It reminds me of The Book Thief (obviously), but also in parts; The Ocean at the End of the Lane, as well as fairytales like those of Hans Christian Andersen. Anna and the Swallow Man isn't just amazing historical fiction, it's vividly imaginative, gorgeous prose. It's captivating storytelling, and best of all not everything is explained and wrapped up with a pretty bow. Obviously there's unpleasantness, but then there is beauty, resilience, and virtue as well.

The audiobook is awesome. Perfectly narrated by Allan Corduner, who quite fittingly, narrated The Book Thief as well.

Anyways, I've already ordered a print copy of Anna and the Swallow Man on Amazon, as I expect to be wanting to revisit the story from time to time. Really, I found it truly fascinating. Hopefully Gavriel Savit will want to write more books in this genre, or any genre for that matter! I'll certainly be interested.

If Anna's young life had been a house, the men and women with whom her father spent his free time in discourse would've been its pillars. They kept the sky up and the earth down, and they smiled and spoke to her as if she were one of their own children. It was never only Professor Lania coming to visit them; it was Professor Lania and Anna. Or as they might have it, Professor Lania and Anja, or Khannaleh, or Anke, or Anushka, or Anouk. She had as many names as there were languages, as there were people in the world.

[Kaya Dimitrova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Развиваща се на фона на Втората световна война, “Анна и Говорещия с лястовици” е една красиво написана книга за пътя към съзряването на едно момиченце, в който участва и един странник, един евреин, немалко доза тъга и изпитания. Обикнах стила на романа, чийто тон на моменти беше равен, а в други – емоционален, влюбих се и в героите на Савит, към чиято чудатост, грижовност, мъдрост и любознателност няма как да останеш безразличен. Единственото, за което съжалявам е, че четях книгата твърде разкъсано във времето, влачейки я повече от месец, а не я прочетох на един дъх, като „приказка”, каквато е описана.

[RoseMary Achey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this short novel three stars for the beautiful writing, but only two for the disjointed plot. Anna and the Swallow Man has been compared to The Book Thief however the only similarity I see is the time frame-WWII. Many reviewers have used the terms magical realism and a bit of a fairy tale, but I felt this author failed to provide a sufficient foundation to support these elements.

[Siv30 · Rating 4 out of 5]

לסקירה מפורטת בעברית, קישור לבלוג שלי -

https://sivi-the-avid-reader.com/אנה-...

[Dov Zeller]

Warning: Plot elements revealed in this review. Also known as Spoiler Alert!

It's time to write a review of Anna and the Swallow Man (swallow as in the kind of bird) and this isn't going to be easy. For one thing, I didn't like the book and it makes me a little nervous to say so publicly, especially when there are many things the writer does very well. And also because I don't fully grasp all the reasons I found the book to be troubling and dissatisfying. Hopefully as I write this, these things will make themselves more clear. (Isn't writing a review, after all, a living conversation with a book, a community, and a self?)

It's possible, even probable that the book is well-written. Well-crafted prose is a promising start. Or is it? Maybe, it is a questionable start. Because how does one talk about the quality of prose outside of what a writer is doing with it?

There is, however, a quality to the prose, a fine silk between thumb and forefinger feeling, and maybe it's even too nice. It seems to want to lean against a wall somewhere in a James Dean kind of way, and smoke a cigarette -- to appear attractive and smart about the world. But what's underneath this posturing? What kind of meaningful connection is fostered between the content and the form of this book?

Then again, maybe that is part of the horror here. The quiet prettiness and evasiveness. Maybe Savit is trying to rhyme an evasive and restricted style of writing with the masquerade of the Swallow Man. But then, why doesn't the style break down when the Swallow Man does?

But the book never does open up and tell us its secrets. It doesn't go digging in the soil to show us broken artifacts. It works to stay tidy and pared down. I've read these kinds of paired down books. There are many of them out there. And sometimes I appreciate that quality, when it's bringing me somewhere I couldn't otherwise imagine. But this book ruffles my feathers, and not in a way that feels instructive. For one, it is a novel that doesn't feel quite like a novel. What kind of text does it, then, feel like? A short story? At 225 pages? Can there be a 225 page piece of short fiction? And if so, why? Not that I am making an argument that it is a piece of short fiction, but if it were, that would make a little more sense.

Here I will mention one of the many things "Anna and the Swallow Man" does well (prettiness of prose aside). First of all, it leads me to question the form of the novel and wonder at its basic elements. I don't mean character, plot, setting, and that kind of thing. This novel has characters, namely: Anna and the Swallow man. And also Reb Herschel who journeys with them for a time, though he barely seems real even in the context of this fiction.

And there is a plot in here, sort of. Anna is 7 years old and her father, a linguistics professor, is taken away during the Sonderaktion Krakau. (In the fall of 1939 nearly two hundred academics and others affiliated with universities in German occupied Krakow were arrested and taken from prison to prison on the way to Buchenwald, which, at the time, was over capacity. Eventually those who didn't die of exposure, illness and violence wound up in Dachau. Most surviving prisoners were released from Dachau in Jan 1941 because of international outrage and intervention. The book leads us to believe that Anna's father will not return after being arrested, but I could be wrong about that. The book doesn't take us to the end of the war and when we leave off, Anna is on her way, well, somewhere in a boat with a stranger.

But, we're at the beginning of the novel and Anna's father is arrested and disappears. Anna has no one to take care of her. Her mother has been dead and out of the picture for some time and apparently Anna has no other family to contact, and the other adults in her immediate vicinity want nothing to do with her. It isn't clear why, but my guess is, either they are worried they will then become a target, or they are worried they are already a target and she will make them more of a target. But it doesn't really make sense to me that no one is looking out for Anna in the slightest. She's not Jewish as far as I know. She's seven years old. She's alone.

In any case, Anna winds up wandering the streets near her apartment confused until, a day or two after her father is taken away, by chance, she meets the Swallow Man. Like her, he speaks many languages quite fluently (according to the logic of the book, Anna, because she is the daughter of a linguistics professor, would naturally be fluent in many languages. Anna speaks and understands German, Polish, Russian, Yiddish and French.) The Swallow Man takes notice of Anna and when he comes to understand her predicament after a brief conversation in five languages, he tells her to follow him into the woods (well, actually he tells her to "remain out of sight for as long as possible" which Anna understands is the same as an invitation to follow him.)

For reasons we don't know in the beginning of the novel, the Swallow Man is on the run, wandering directionless though Poland and Russia. Why his reason for hiding is kept a secret I don't know, and it is one of the thing that bothers me. It is kept secret and then revealed to no effect at all. He's a scientist. He's in some way capable of being involved in research of atomic weapons for Germany. He doesn't want that. If he is recognized, trouble will be a-brewing. So, his destination is survival without capture. I would have been very happy to know that from the start and to have more of a sense of the stakes. But that is not what this novel is about. What is this novel about? Well, I just told you. A girl losing her caretaker and following the Swallow Man into the woods. Maybe this novel is about people hiding from themselves and each other? The Swallow Man's super power is, after all, blending in wherever he goes or being seen in whatever way he wants to be seen, which is also a form of invisibility. And forming small moments of camaraderie with people whenever it is of use for procuring food and other needful things. And wandering for months through countrysides without running into other humans. And sleeping outdoors in Poland and Russia in the dead of winter without even losing any toes?!

So, the girl formerly known as Anna follows the Swallow Man into the woods and becomes "sweetie" and learns from him how to survive as war rages around them. They must not, first of all, call each other by name, because remaining nameless is part of staying safe according to the Swallow Man's rules of the road. He teaches Anna to speak "Road." Meaning, how to be evasive and get what they want and need without 1) getting noticed more than is needful 2) getting caught by anyone. Of course, it isn't clear why Anna should be in danger aside from the fact her father is gone. The Swallow Man might just as easily have brought her to a church or an orphanage. But that is not how this book rolls. The Swallow Man, instead of finding a place for her to stay, leads her into the woods and they wander from place to place and stay alive, which is, in itself a feat. We learn that the Swallow Man carries around a young girl's shoe wherever he goes. Again, we are not told why. I don't know why we aren't told why. It's a bit distracting knowing there's this shoe and he's carrying it around everywhere and there's likely a kid to go with it. Savit or the narrator or whoever intentionally leaves this unexplained. And why? All these the "tiny m" mysteries don't do anything but distract. Okay. So the swallow man is some kind of scientist. He's a father who's lost his kid or kids, as represented by a shoe that he eventually eats the rhinestones off. Also, the narrator at a certain point announces that the Swallow Man laughs three times in the course of time that Anna knows him. Another "small m" mystery (when did he laugh, why did he laugh) and a gimmicky way of foreshadowing his disappearance. Also, it's pretty hard to believe. It is much easier to believe he eats rhinestones off of shoes and survives sleeping outside in winter than that he laughs three times in as many years.

Anna and the Swallow Man become a team somewhat in the tradition of Paper Moon, though in war time with horrors abounding. At some point they meet Reb Herschel and Anna wants him to join their team and the Swallow Man doesn't, but then the Swallow Man realizes (a curious intersection) how unhappy his strict rules of the road have made Anna. He comprehends that some people can't survive on physical sustenance alone, but need emotional sustenance as well, which Hershel provides for Anna, though he is to the Swallow Man's rules of the road what a moose is to a pool party. Or, let's just say the Swallow Man and Herschel are a bit of a classic odd couple. But the potential for humor here isn't much addressed. What is shown is that people can be indiscreet and joyful and not necessarily get shot when they're in the middle of nowhere, though I must admit I wasn't really with Savit at this point in the novel. Though I appreciated the joyfulness, it was hard to believe that the trio was able to go for such long stretches without running into other people or mines or anything of the sort.

The book sets up a situation with a young girl and two father figures, one tall and thin, the other shorter and stout. One cold and calculating but clearly protective of Anna, the other neither cold nor calculating, but also protective of Anna, and perhaps not as equipped to protect her.

Reb Herschel provides much needed comic relief, but not enough of it and not, perhaps, in the right way. He is meant to, I think, provide air in an airless environment. But he seems more symbolic than real, and it is strange, the comparison that must arise between Anna, Solomon and Herschel as characters. There is a bit of a flatness to Anna and Solomon, and I can sort of make sense of that because war flattens people out, when it's not sharpening them and bringing out the rawness of experience. But if the war flattens Anna and Solomon, it turns Herschel into a Jewish stereotype. He is Tevya and Mottel and the fiddler with a broken violin, walking out of a Sholem Aleichem novel, but without the depth of human wisdom and suffering and the humorous and fantastic conversations with God and everyone else. This is not to say I don't like Reb Herschel. I don't know if I like him. Mostly I find it distracting the way he arrives, the things he says, the way he leaves, and the rest of his story after that seems too predictable and hard to make sense of. Once he's gone he's gone, and I wonder, why was he here in the first place?

Which calls to mind another question. Does one have to buy something in a novel in order to enjoy the novel? What does it even mean, to trust that something is real in a work of fiction? Of course, this particular book is working on many levels. The level of allegory, but with attempts at realism, and a touch of magical realism thrown in. In my understanding, a think has to make sense only within the world of the book. Even if the world of the book is nonsensical.

This book is in the realm of the theater of the absurd but it is standing outside the door (leaning against the wall, smoking a cigarette.) It doesn't really go anywhere. One might say that is the point of this book. A journey to nowhere. But no, I won't let the book off the hook in that way.

When Herschel walks into the story, the story wants to become an existential comedy and to some degree it already is. Or, it has some elements of Becket a pinch of Sholem Aleichem. This aimlessness, failure of event, and evasion of humor is all too much though, given the way it ends. I greatly appreciate existential comedy, but this has all the elements of existential comedy without the comedy.

What ends up happening is I don't know how to read it because it doesn't know quite where it's going. People wandering aimlessly, book wandering aimlessly. What this is, I think, is a work of fiction that has not been edited well. In which someone, writer or editor, wasn't willing to take some kind of risk. I don't know what that risk is, because I am reading what made it to print. I have the feeling that somewhere in here is a much better book. But this one is too careful and not careful enough. It hints at existential comedy, but won't go there. It takes itself very seriously but shows a troubling immaturity. It is a coming of age story but with very little attention paid to Anna's inner experiences. There comes toward the end a series of events that leave Anna "older" and alone. She is in some sense going from innocence to experience, but again, really?

There is a spareness in this book that for me doesn't work. I found myself thinking of The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It is a similar premise. A few people wandering in a hideous war-torn world and trying to retain some of their humanity. But the spareness in McCarthy's book is used to offer wild moments of relief (the discovery of jars of food for example, that sets the colors and brightness of the food against the overall sooty gray concision of the world.) Savit's book is not set against a gray, sooty landscape, though. There is much color, a lot of natural beauty, the landscapes are vast and peppered with woods and villages and rivers. We are not deprived of something and then offered it in a way that is like holding one's breath without realizing it and then suddenly taking a breath. In McCarthy's book there is also an element of morality that is, well, I don't know that I bought it. There was something a little too self-rightous about the heroism. But there is also a fullness to the exploration. In Savit's book there is a similar question -- how far we will go to survive during war time, and at what point it is better to risk dying than to kill? But it is not fully realized in Savit's book. I am not on board for either the murder the Swallow Man commits in order to protect Anna, or of Herschel's reaction to it. Neither seem well-founded.

On one hand, I get that Anna and the Swallow Man have had to lose their human definitions in order to stay alive in the wilderness. On the other hand, I left the book with little sensation other than "huh?" Perhaps I needed to understand how they managed to not freeze to death in the winter. I certainly needed a better understanding as to why the scene in the pharmacy toward the end of the novel happened. I needed that scene to be doing work other than to show Anna going from "innocence" to "experience". And moving from one who is taken care of to one who takes care of. Does the exploitative behavior of the pharmacist really have to serve as a coming of experiential moment? Savit cooly posits this scene as part of her unsentimental education, but there is so little of her in it, it feels like she's a sock puppet and some sexual harassment was just thrown in there for a shitty time.

Do we need to have to guess during the whole book what the Swallow Man does, where he's from, who's shoe he's carrying around, and why he's on the run? Do we need him to visit an old colleague in one of the more clunky scenes of the book, in the final chapters, after he's recovered some from his radiation madness? Do we need the pills to be a big secret the whole time? Do we need the Swallow Man to go totally bonkers because he's not taking his radiation meds (when it's finally revealed that's what they are?) Anyway, at the end of the book, the Swallow Man does some wheeling and dealing and sends Anna off in a boat with a stranger. And then the book ends.

So, what are the elements of a novel that this book is missing? I think most of all a sense of its own borders and the courage and/or vulnerability to really explore the questions it is exploring.

[Patrizia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worum geht es?
Krakau, 1939. Anna ist noch ein Kind, als die Deutschen ihren Vater mitnehmen, einen jüdischen Intellektuellen. Sie versteht nicht, warum. Sie versteht nur, dass sie allein zurückbleibt. Und dann trifft Anna den Schwalbenmann. Geheimnisvoll ist er, charismatisch und klug, und ebenso wie ihr Vater kann er faszinierend viele Sprachen sprechen. Er kann Vogellaute imitieren und eine Schwalbe für sie anlocken. Und er kann überleben – in einer Welt, in der plötzlich alles voller tödlicher Feindseligkeit zu sein scheint. Anna schließt sich dem Schwalbenmann an, lernt von ihm, wie man jenseits der Städte wandert, sich im Wald ernährt und verbirgt. Wie man dem Tod entkommt, um das Leben zu bewahren. Aber in einer Welt, die am Abgrund steht, kann alles gefährlich werden. Auch der Schwalbenmann. (via randomhouse)

Wie hat es mir gefallen?
Schnell und unweigerlich wird man in die Geschichte hineingeworfen. Anna befindet sich für wenige Stunden in der Obhut von Dr. Fuchsmann, einer der dieselbe Sprache spricht wie die Soldaten der Gestapo. Ihr Vater würde bald wieder kommen, er müsse in der polnischen Akademie zu einer Debatte - doch dem ist nicht so. Vom Hörsaal geht es ins Gefängnis, von da aus in ein Internierungslager. Zurück bleibt Anna, bei einem Mann, der die Sprache der Gestapo spricht.

"Papa", sagte Anna, "warum lachen sie über diesen Mann?". Annas Vater antwortete nicht. Der Soldat drehte sich um. "Weil", sagte er, "dieser Mann kein Mann ist, Kleine. Er ist ein Jude." Anna erinnerte sich genau an diesen Satz, denn er veränderte ihre Welt. Sie hatte gedacht, sie wusste, was Sprache war, wie Sprache funktionierte, wie die Menschen verschiedene Wörter aus der Luft sogen, um damit Dinge einzufangen. Aber das hier war komplizierter." (S. 17f)

Um Schwierigkeiten aus dem Wege zu gehen, setzt Dr. Fuchsmann Anna auf die Straße. Hoffnungsvoll wartet sie weiter auf ihren geliebten Vater, doch er wird nicht kommen. Stattdessen erscheint der Schwalbenmann, eine kuriose Gestalt, die von Beginn an eine große Faszination auf Anna ausübt. Diese "Bewunderung" geht soweit, dass Anna dem Schwalbenmann nicht mehr von der Seite weicht, bis zum bitteren Ende.

"Hör gut zu" sagte er und stieß erneut einen langsamen Seufzer aus. "Diese Welt von heute ist ein sehr, sehr gefährlicher Ort." Seine Stimme klang plötzlich kalt und abgemessen. (S. 49)

Bücher aus dem Bereich Holocaust Historical Fiction sind durchaus keine leichte Kost, und so ist es auch bei Anna und der Schwalbenmann. Doch dieses Buch punktet vor allem dadurch, dass es versucht das greifbar zu machen, was für uns heute immernoch unbegreiflich scheint. Und zwar nicht einfach, indem es das wiederbelebt, was nicht in Vergessenheit geraten darf, sondern indem es sich dem Ganzen ja schon fast philosophisch annähert, transportiert durch die Figur des Schwalbenmannes. Es gibt kaum Zeilen, in denen kein Wort unbedacht gewählt wurde, kein Kapitel in dem es nicht tiefgründig zugeht. Denn immerhin sehen wir die Welt aus Anna's Sicht, aus der Sicht eines Kindes. Wie soll man einem unschuldigen Geschöpf all den plötzlichen Hass klar machen? Erzählte Bilder sind hier eine Möglichkeit, die der Schwalbenmann stets ergreift.

"Sie sehen aus wie junge Männer, oder? Aber das sind sie nicht. Die, die von Westen kommen - sie sind Wölfe. Und die, die von Osten kommen, sind Bären. Sie verkleiden sich als junge Männer, weil sie sich als Menschen leichter an Orten der Menschen bewegen können, auf Straßen und in Städten. [...] Die Wölfe und Bären mögen keine Menschen, und wenn sie einen Grund finden, dir wehzutun, dann werden sie es tun. Sie sind hier, weil sie die Welt mit ihrer eigenen Art bevölkern wollen. Sie versuchen, sich so viel PLatz wie möglich zu schaffen, und das tun sie, indem sie die Menschen loswerden, und dazu kannst du jederzeit gehören." (S.86f)

Gleichzeitig sind Passagen wie diese so gut beschrieben, dass sie in Jugendlichen, denn für die ist ja dieses Buch vorrangig gemacht, keiner Ohnmacht nahe sind. Ich meine nicht, dass diese Textzeilen beschönigen würden, das tun sie nicht. Ganz im Gegenteil. Die Grausamkeiten dieser Zeit stehen immernoch in den Seiten, jedoch eben in anderer Weise transportiert. Berührend sind sie allemal und so manches Kapitel ließ mich mit offenem Munde zurück.

"Deswegen sind wir hier. Es gibt einen Vogel in diesem Land, einen extrem seltenen Vogel, der sehr, sehr gefährdet ist. Es ist nur noch ein einziger seiner Art übrig. Und ich möchte ihn retten. Die Wölfe und die Bären wollen ihn auch unbedingt finden, weil er köstlich schmeckt und weil er der letzte ist, und sie glauben, wer ihn frisst, wird sehr, sehr stark." (S. 101)

Auch liest man dieses Buch mit einem stets wachsamen Gefühl, schön ist das nicht, doch zeigt es eben das, was Anna und der Schwalbenmann in dieser Zeit sein müssen: wachsam. Gavriel Savit hat es sowohl sprachlich als auch metaphorisch geschafft, dass ich mich äußerst gut in die Hauptfiguren einfinden konnte. All dies ließ mich emotional kein bisschen kalt. Ob dieses Buch auch in Hinblick auf Schule eine gute Lektüre wäre? Jein. Zwar sprechen viele ökonomische Aspekte (Schriftgröße, Aufmachung, Seitenanzahl) dafür, allerdings könnte das stetige Analysieren der philosophisch-geschriebenen Bilder bei den Schülerinnen und Schülern unserer Zeit massive Unlust erzeugen. Besser wäre wohl eine Einbettung einzelner Kapitel in den Unterricht, vielleicht sogar ein jenes, welches ich hier kurz zitiert habe. Ob das Buch für 14+ zu empfehlen wäre? Das hängt meiner Meinung nach ganz von der geistigen Reife der oder des 14. Jährigen ab. Wir haben es bei Anna und der Schwalbenmann nicht mit einer Mainstream-Lektüre zutun, das hier geht sehr viel tiefer. Würde ich die Geschichte generell empfehlen? Ganz klares Ja!

Anna und der Schwalbenmann von Gavriel Savit hat in jedem Fall den Stempel Herzensangelegenheit/Herzensbuch 2016 verdient, alleine gegen das Vergessen! Sprachlich bewegt sich diese Geschichte auf unglaublich hohem Niveau, so wie ich es selten bei einem Jugendbuch dieses Genre's erlebt habe. Alle Achtung vor dem Autor und natürlich auch der Leistung der Übersetzerin Sophie Zeitz. Literatur über den Holocaust ist nicht für jeden etwas, dieses Buch schwimmt ganz klar gegen den derzeitigen literarischen Trend und das ist es, was dieses Buch so besonders macht! Fünf von fünf Sternen dafür.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gavriel Savit pega no tema do Holocausto e suaviza-o com Anna e o Homem Andorinha. Um livro que chega a ser poético de tão bonito que é.

Orfã de mãe e pai (este último, professor universitário na Polónia desaparece no dia em que perseguem os intelectuais) Anna encontra refúgio nos braços de um homem misterioso, que raramente sorri, mas que a adopta e protege como ela necessita.


Juntos passam ao lado da verdadeira guerra, (será que passam?), embora Anna vivencie algumas atrocidades e passe bastante fome. No entanto, o homem, que nunca saberemos o nome, arranja sempre forma de a proteger e de lhe dar um porto de abrigo.

"Os nomes são formas de as pessoas nos encontrarem - disse o homem alto. - Se tens um nome, as pessoas sabem por quem perguntar. E se as pessoas souberem por quem perguntar conseguem descobrir onde estiveste, e ficam a um passo mais perto de te encontrar. Nós não queremos ser encontrados."


Opinião completa: http://marcadordelivros.blogspot.pt/2...

[Aydan Yalçın · Rating 4 out of 5]

Konusuna bakıp wwii temalı, dram yüklü, düşündürücü bir çocuk kitabıdır kesin diye düşünmüştüm ama çok farklı, daha cezbedici bir şey çıktı. Bu bir çocuk kitabı değil, olmamalı da zaten. Kitap boyunca Kırlangıç Adam'la ilgili süregelen o tekinsizsizlik aşırı iyiydi. Bitmek bilmeyen o yolculuğun nedenini "budur" diyip isimlendiremesem de sonu çok garip ve beklenmedikti. 😶 Üzerine biraz düşünmem lazım, puanlamam bi ara değişebilir 🙃

[Sierra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book, but I just think that it was missing something.

[Célia | Estante de Livros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quando a Segunda Guerra Mundial já foi palco de tantas histórias na ficção, o maior desafio para um autor que deseja utilizá-la como pano de fundo é, sem dúvida, ser original. Gavriel Savit estreou-se na ficção precisamente com este Anna e o Homem Andorinha, a história de uma menina judia de 7 anos que se vê subitamente sem pai, quando a Polónia, o seu país de origem, é invadida no início do conflito e os judeus começam a ser perseguidos. Anna é “adotada” pelo Homem Andorinha e ambos fogem de Cracóvia, vagueando nos anos seguintes por florestas e locais recônditos, tentando escapar a olhares indiscretos.

O percurso destas duas personagens é-nos narrado do ponto de vista de Anna e, por esse motivo, as conversas com o Homem Andorinha, as suas viagens e as vicissitudes que vão encontrando pelo caminho são sempre mostradas ao leitor de uma perspetiva pueril e inocente. As ilações sobre os aspetos adultos da história ficam a cargo do leitor, um pouco à semelhança do que acontece com Por Favor, não Matem a Cotovia, de Harper Lee.

O Homem Andorinha é uma incógnita para Anna desde o início e, ainda que os dois se venham a conhecer em maior profundidade com o passar do tempo, ele nunca deixa de ser uma figura que Anna desconfia possuir muito mais camadas do que aquelas que lhe mostra. Aquele homem alto, magro e desengonçado é o porto seguro de Anna, que a protege e ampara, ensinando-a a sobreviver num mundo hostil e, na sua aparente contenção, dando-lhe o suporte emocional possível no contexto complicado em que se encontram.

Gavriel Savit tem uma escrita envolvente e repleta de sensibilidade, que se adequa em pleno a esta história. No meio dos perigos que rodeiam as personagens, ressalta nas suas palavras a beleza das pequenas coisas e o valor da amizade e do amor que se conseguem encontrar mesmo quando as condições são as mais adversas. O mundo visto pelos olhos de uma criança será sempre melhor do que a realidade, e Gavriel Savit consegue transmitir muito bem esta ideia ao leitor.

E regresso assim ao desafio que referi no início deste texto. Acho que Gavriel Savit conseguiu criar um livro especial, que pecará apenas pelo final que parece não estar à altura do resto da história. De resto, gostei muito e aguardarei por novas publicações deste autor.

Homens que tentam compreender o mundo sem a ajuda de crianças são como homens que tentam fazer pão sem a ajuda de fermento.

A desilusão, mesmo que pesada, é algo que enfiamos numa mala com suficiente facilidade – tem arestas vivas e cantos arredondados e cabe sempre no último espaço que resta. Com a esperança passa-se algo muito semelhante. Todavia, de algum modo, a mistura das duas é qualquer coisa muito menos uniforme – incómoda, mais volumosa e não menos pesada. É demasiado delicada para se enfiar numa mala e virar as costas. Tem de ser levada em mãos.

[joie de livre]

DISCLAIMER
Wrote this review when I was literally 12 so this is here simply for comedic purposes. Thank you and goodbye.


Even though at parts it was a beautiful book it was hard for me to understand some of the political occasions because Savit did not explain them.He was generally pretty vague and the book was quite metaphorical,lyrical and poetic it sometimes was too much because I couldn't understand what he actually meant.I liked the innocence of the girl though she grew up too quickly and was surprisingly not too scared of the dead bodies in front of her all the time.

I still have a lot of questions after reading this book and especially on what age group it's targeted on?It's too mature to be children's but not very young adult either though I wouldn't call it adult but neither for all ages.

I liked some of the metaphors,I felt like the pacing was a bit frozen and hazy but not too slow,I liked the mysterious character of the Swallow Man but I sometimes felt like Savit was trying too hard to make him seem mysterious.The bond between Anna and him usually made me feel kind of uncomfortable for some reason because I didn't feel much the father-daughter love.But when I did it was beautiful!And even though I sound stupid saying this and I am but the whole "daddy" thing reminded me of the trend these days and made me very uncomfortable and cringy and this book was written recently but it's society that puts this stupid ideas into our heads because daughters call their dads "daddy" very usually.Aghh society's ruining our minds again!!Maybe it was because Anna wasn't his actual daughter but whatever.

It was kind of dull and didn't really have a spark or anything too interesting or big happening,it was all just slow traveling with a slow start and a slow finish.I don't exactly know what else to say.I really liked the watercolor illustrations at the start of every chapter though,they were simple,nice and pretty.The vocabulary was rich and the writing was nice,I liked the snowy feel I got from this book but altogether I have no idea what the point of the whole journey was.Sure character development,coming of age,finding yourself,whatever you want to call it but what was the GOAL??No idea.

[Miniikaty · Rating 2 out of 5]

En realidad un 2,5.

Me esperaba bastante de este libro y me he dado de bruces con una historia con la que no he conectado y que me ha dejado con las mismas incógnitas que al empezarlo. Y es que es una historia que aunque es original por el punto de vista desde el que se narra, no solo por la voz inocente de la protagonista, sino más bien por ver la guerra desde una pareja de nómadas supervivientes que hacen cualquier cosa, tienen sus propias directrices y caminan a lo largo y ancho de toda Polonia para huir y protegerse de lo peor de esa época, lo demás ha sido todo un despropósito para mí. El principio me gusto y me enganchó porque quería saber que iba a sucederle a Anna, quien era el Hombre Golondrina y cuales eran sus secretos, pero según se avanza en la trama la historia se me hizo cargante y fatigoso, no pasaba nada, solo ellos caminando sin parar y encima el libro es todo narración, no hay apenas diálogos y los capítulos son muy largos así que me costo pasar páginas.

Anna y el hombre golondrina es un relato de amistad y supervivencia de la mano de dos personajes nómadas que viven en sus carnes el horror de la segunda guerra mundial.

Reseña completa: http://letraslibrosymas.blogspot.com....