February 29, 2016
Anna is seven years old when the Nazis come for her linguistics professor father. In 1939 Poland, many children are left orphaned or are taken to concentration camps, but Anna finds refuge of a sort by traveling with a tall, thin man, who communicates with birds and speaks in metaphors. Anna and the Swallow Man speak in Polish, German, Russian, Yiddish, and French. Reader Corduner performs these lines with the lightest of accents, flavoring the story and never overwhelming the listener. Corduner’s gentle tone of voice makes young Anna come alive without resorting to high-pitched breathiness. His Swallow Man is mysterious but also comforting, setting up great tension in the story. In his quiet yet firm manner, the Swallow Man teaches Anna lessons of survival, some of which challenge her instincts to be honest and compassionate. Corduner handles the story deftly, simply letting Savit’s words do the work and never hamming it up in his performance. This book is more than simple historical fiction; it is almost a fable about how to live in hard times. Corduner’s performance is also more than simple narration—it is remarkable. Ages 12–up. A Knopf hardcover.
Starred review from November 2, 2015
Like Life Is Beautiful and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, this deeply moving debut novel, set in Poland and Germany during WWII, casts naïveté against the cruel backdrop of inhumanity. Late one autumn morning, seven-year-old Anna is put under the care of a pharmacist. Her father is supposed to retrieve her in a few hours, but he never returns. Cast from her caretaker’s shop, Anna has nowhere to turn until she falls in with a reluctant stranger, a tall, reticent man. Thus begins a years-long journey through the woods and beyond that draws Anna closer and closer to the strange man, who communicates with birds and speaks in metaphors (“Everything he said—even, perhaps especially, the things he left out—seemed to carry the reliable weight of truth”). In his quiet yet firm manner, the Swallow Man teaches Anna lessons of survival, some of which challenge her instincts to be honest and compassionate. Savit’s economical prose beautifully captures a child’s loss of innocence and the spiritual challenges that emerge when a safe world suddenly becomes threatening. The subject matter and gritty imagery may be too intense for some younger readers, but those knowledgeable of wartime atrocities will recognize the profundity of the bond of trust built between two strangers who become increasingly dependent on each other. Ages 12–up. Agent: Catherine Drayton, Inkwell Management.