The Yellow Bird Sings by Jennifer Rosner

Fri, 04/03/2020 - 12:34pm -- JGranatino

Poland, 1941. Roza and her five-year-old daughter, Shira, hide in the loft of a neighbor’s barn, the only survivors of another Jewish family murdered by Nazi soldiers. They have nothing except their memories of musical family gatherings with young Shira capturing the melodies in her head while she dances around the room. Now she must remain silent to avoid giving away their hiding place. To keep her entertained, Roza weaves a fairy tale of a young girl in an enchanted garden whose yellow bird sings the melodies to keep evil away. One day the Germans arrive in the town and before they are discovered, Roza decides to give up her child to an orphanage run by nuns while she runs to the woods, heartbroken and lost. For years the child, now known as Zosia, is trained by a local musician on an old violin and she pours her heart and her memories into the music, remembering her lost family and her mother’s stories. Meanwhile, Roza continues to search Europe for her lost child. Rosner carefully crafts her characters against the backdrop of wartime Europe, with the fairy tale and the music forever intertwining their lives, however parted.

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