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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
To be honest, I'm not sure what I expected when I began this book. The premise was interesting, namely, a young girl is taken under the wing of a complete stranger during Germany's invasion of Poland and the beginning of WWII. But the author had a habit of diverting from the main plot-line into tangents that, while interesting, were not truly necessary to the story. These were mainly instructional in nature, and seemed to detract a bit from the narrative. For example, the novel opens with the narrator explaining who Anna is, then diverts into a tangent on the types of personalities that a 7-year-old girl might have, before returning to Anna to say what type she was.
In addition, the book sort of just...ends. It's sort of abrupt, without any explanation. And the reader is left wondering what happened to Anna and to the Swallow Man?
In addition, the book sort of just...ends. It's sort of abrupt, without any explanation. And the reader is left wondering what happened to Anna and to the Swallow Man?
A beautifully written historical fiction novel about World War II refugees. It begins in Krakau Poland, when Anna is 7, in 1939, and her professor father disappears. She was left in the care of a merchant friend of her father's. But as time goes on and her father never returns, the merchant is too nervous to keep her and so she's on her own. Then she meets the man she dubs The Swallow Man, and together they spend the next four years wandering through Europe, always trying to stay a step ahead of the military on all sides. He explains things to her in terms a child will understand, like calling them the "Wolf" and the "Bear" soldiers for the Nazis and the Russians. Together they see many horrors, eventually meeting a kindly Jewish man whom Anna befriends, despite the Swallow Man's objections. (He doesn't want another mouth to feed or to complicate their method of crossing the borders.) Much of the story is told from that childlike, naive point of view; for example, the Jewish man is "The man who kissed his rifle" because she sees him playing a clarinet but has no clue what a clarinet is. Things get very intense when they end up behind the Russian lines, and what I first thought was a children's book for middle grades really takes a turn for the YA. The language of the book is very metaphorical and beautiful. A heartbreaking story, as all are that attempt to tell pat of the tragedy of World War II.
Anna and the Swallow Man read almost like a fairy tale to me. It follows a young girl during ww2 after her father is arrested and a tall man, the Swallow Man, takes her under his wing. Because this is told from her perspective, and she doesn't understand much about the war, you know very little about anything going on (the mystery of the swallow man especially). Anna only focuses on the rules that are given to her and the way he explains their situation, which is to stay away from the wolves (Germans) and the bears (Russians), and to keep moving. Very different, really enjoyed the writing.
In this beautifully written debut novel, Gavriel Savit tells the haunting story of a young girl who casts her lot with a mysterious man when her father is taken by the Nazis and she is left alone. The story begins in Krakow, Poland on November 6, 1939. Anna’s father leaves her at a friend’s shop while he goes to a meeting at the university where he is works. Anna does not know it, but she will never see her father again. The next morning her father’s friend tells her she can’t stay in his shop. Determined to wait for her father, Anna sits down on the stoop and this is where she meets the tall thin man who she decides to follow across Poland. The man insists that they should both remain nameless as a way to keep themselves safe and insists that they only refer to each other as Daddy and Sweetie. They continue this way walking and staying hidden, and Anna learns the Swallow Man’s methods of survival as the two develop a strong, if unconventional, relationship. This relationship is tested when they meet a Jew on the run from Nazi soldiers who Anna wants to befriend, which goes against all of the rules of survival she has learned.
The most outstanding aspect of this novel is the writing, which can only be described as poetic. I found myself going back to reread certain passages just to savor the beauty of the language. The book is written from Anna’s third person limited omniscient point of view, which keeps her character somewhat at a distance from the reader though we are privy to her thoughts and feelings. Since Anna is only seven years old, this also forces the reader to read between the lines and fill in the blanks in order to fully understand the story. The characters are complex. The Swallow Man in particular is hard to pin down as either good or bad and remains shrouded in mystery throughout the book. The ending left a lot to the readers’ imagination, and personally, I would have like a little more closure. Though there is a lot to be said about the quality of the writing and the literary value of the book, the slow pace of the plot and the lyrical nature of the writing make it seem more like an adult novel than YA to me. Recommended for older teens and adults who enjoy character driven, literary, historical fiction.
The most outstanding aspect of this novel is the writing, which can only be described as poetic. I found myself going back to reread certain passages just to savor the beauty of the language. The book is written from Anna’s third person limited omniscient point of view, which keeps her character somewhat at a distance from the reader though we are privy to her thoughts and feelings. Since Anna is only seven years old, this also forces the reader to read between the lines and fill in the blanks in order to fully understand the story. The characters are complex. The Swallow Man in particular is hard to pin down as either good or bad and remains shrouded in mystery throughout the book. The ending left a lot to the readers’ imagination, and personally, I would have like a little more closure. Though there is a lot to be said about the quality of the writing and the literary value of the book, the slow pace of the plot and the lyrical nature of the writing make it seem more like an adult novel than YA to me. Recommended for older teens and adults who enjoy character driven, literary, historical fiction.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The allegorical style, and lyrical writing drew me in immediately. When the Swallow man appears as Anna's potential savior and guide, it feels like magic realism, but as they journey deeper into the woods, and years pass, his existence as a real person (in my mind) becomes more plausible, and more problematic. This book is all about language and story-- Anna and the Swallow Man both speak multiple languages (Polish, German, Yiddish), and Swallow Man instructs Anna in "Road," the language of deception that helps them survive. Through the beginning of the book, the brutal details of World War II Poland are not directly addressed, but they lie heavily in just beyond the surface, and the reader is left to fill in the details of what happens beyond Anna and the Swallow Man's hiding places with their own knowledge. I found this to be more powerful than reading another directly-related account of the historical events. The moments when Anna and the Swallow man encounter those horrific realities seem to occur more frequently as Anna grows older and emerges from the imaginative world of childhood, into young adulthood. A worthy read. I am not usually a re-reader, but I might need to revisit this one.
Lots of hype surrounding this book and I just didn't get it. I think it had the potential to be great, but I thought it slow and a little confusing. Magical realism just felt odd. Not a bad read, but not as amazing as I wanted.
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
In Poland in 1939, seven year old Anna's father went to work one day, never to return. As such, she finds herself learning to survive under the care of a stranger that she knows only as "the swallow man". Together, they escape Russian and German soldiers and travel the Eastern European countryside as they try to survive and make sense of the world that seems to be crumbling around them.
As this won the Odyssey Award (excellence in audio production) last year, I decided to give it a listen and I'm so glad that I did. The narration was excellent. This book is apparently narrated by the same person that narrated The Book Thief, and I think you'd enjoy this book if you liked that one. This is a brilliantly written book that covers so much ground physically, metaphysically and metaphorically. Many things the Swallow man says or that Anna thinks are steeped in rich allegory and open for interpretation. Some of the things said are merely simple truths. Almost all of it feels somehow important and relevant. For example:
“The world as it exists is a very, very dangerous place.”
and
“Human beings are the best hope in the world of other human beings to survive.”
and
“Normally, her mind was like a busy beach - all day long she would run back and forth, leaving footprints, building small mounds and castles, writing out ideas and diagrams with her fingers in the sand, but when the night tide came in, she would close her eyes and allow each wave of rhythmic breath to wash in and out over her day's accumulation, and before long the beach would be clear and empty, and she would drift off to sleep.”
That, folks, is how you write prose. Insert clapping emoji here.
This book is about the importance of language, and people, and what it takes to stay alive when there's a war on. It's about being human and growing up. It's about family and love and necessity. It's about war. And it's very very good. 4 stars.
As this won the Odyssey Award (excellence in audio production) last year, I decided to give it a listen and I'm so glad that I did. The narration was excellent. This book is apparently narrated by the same person that narrated The Book Thief, and I think you'd enjoy this book if you liked that one. This is a brilliantly written book that covers so much ground physically, metaphysically and metaphorically. Many things the Swallow man says or that Anna thinks are steeped in rich allegory and open for interpretation. Some of the things said are merely simple truths. Almost all of it feels somehow important and relevant. For example:
“The world as it exists is a very, very dangerous place.”
and
“Human beings are the best hope in the world of other human beings to survive.”
and
“Normally, her mind was like a busy beach - all day long she would run back and forth, leaving footprints, building small mounds and castles, writing out ideas and diagrams with her fingers in the sand, but when the night tide came in, she would close her eyes and allow each wave of rhythmic breath to wash in and out over her day's accumulation, and before long the beach would be clear and empty, and she would drift off to sleep.”
That, folks, is how you write prose. Insert clapping emoji here.
This book is about the importance of language, and people, and what it takes to stay alive when there's a war on. It's about being human and growing up. It's about family and love and necessity. It's about war. And it's very very good. 4 stars.
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated