The Yellow Bird Sings: A Novel - Hardcover

Rosner, Jennifer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1250179769 ISBN 13: 9781250179760

Publisher: Flatiron Books, 2020

Synopsis

In Poland, as World War II rages, a mother hides with her young daughter, a musical prodigy whose slightest sound may cost them their lives.

As Nazi soldiers round up the Jews in their town, Róza and her 5-year-old daughter, Shira, flee, seeking shelter in a neighbor’s barn. Hidden in the hayloft day and night, Shira struggles to stay still and quiet, as music pulses through her and the farmyard outside beckons. To soothe her daughter and pass the time, Róza tells her a story about a girl in an enchanted garden:

The girl is forbidden from making a sound, so the yellow bird sings. He sings whatever the girl composes in her head: high-pitched trills of piccolo; low-throated growls of contrabassoon. Music helps the flowers bloom.

In this make-believe world, Róza can shield Shira from the horrors that surround them. But the day comes when their haven is no longer safe, and Róza must make an impossible choice: whether to keep Shira by her side or give her the chance to survive apart.

Inspired by the true stories of Jewish children hidden during World War II, Jennifer Rosner’s debut is a breathtaking novel about the unbreakable bond between a mother and a daughter. Beautiful and riveting, The Yellow Bird Sings is a testament to the triumph of hope―a whispered story, a bird’s song―in even the darkest of times.

About this title

About the Author

Jennifer Rosner is the author of the memoir If A Tree Falls: A Family's Quest to Hear and Be Heard. Her children's book, The Mitten String, is a Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable. Jennifer's writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Massachusetts Review, The Forward, Good Housekeeping, and elsewhere. She lives in western Massachusetts with her family. The Yellow Bird Sings is her debut novel and is being published around the world.

Review

“A beautiful book in so many ways. Like Shira’s imaginary bird, Jennifer Rosner’s prose is lilting and musical, yet her tale of war’s grave personal reality is gripping, heartrending, and so very real.”
―Lisa Wingate, author of Before We Were Yours and Before and After

“The Yellow Bird Sings finds beauty in the unlikeliest of places. Jennifer Rosner gives voice to the soaring truth that a mother’s love can never be silenced, and that even the ugliest war cannot defeat the power of a nurtured imagination.”
―Jeanine Cummins, author of American Dirt

“Music and love course through this beautiful novel, twin rivers of wonder. Jennifer Rosner has written a book that will break your heart, and then put it back together again, a little larger than before.”
―Alex George, author of A Good American

“Room meets Schindler’s List in The Yellow Bird Sings, a beautifully written tale of mothers and daughters, war and love, the music of the living and the silence of the dead.”
―Kate Quinn, author of The Huntress and The Alice Network

“A captivating novel of the power of music, the human voice, and what we sacrifice in order to survive extraordinary circumstances. Absolutely riveting.”
―Ramona Ausubel, author of Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty and No One Is Here Except All of Us

“A brilliant and transporting novel.”
―Margot Livesey, author of Mercury and The Flight of Gemma Hardy

“An extraordinarily beautiful and moving novel of the human heart. It is a rich and poignant story of the enduring power of love and hope in the face of peril.”
―David Gillham, author of City of Women

Edition details

• Publisher: Flatiron Books
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 1250179769
• ISBN 13: 9781250179760
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304