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A review by marilynw
The Yellow Bird Sings by Jennifer Rosner
4.0
The Yellow Bird Sings by Jennifer Rosner
Narrated by Anna Koval
I'm planning to listen to Jennifer Rosner's Once We Were Home but before I do I decided to listen to her earlier book on the same subject, The Yellow Bird Sings. This story deals with the separation of a mother and daughter, twenty five year old Roza and her five year old daughter, Shira. When we meet them, living in a tiny loft in a worn down barn, they have already lost the rest of their family to the violence that was the purging of the Jews in 1941 Poland.
Roza is terrified that she won't be able to protect Shira. She is also exhausted with the constant threat of being found and her daughter being brutalized and killed. She's tried shelter Shira from what really happened to her father, her grandparents, friends and neighbors but when the horror is all around them it seems that they are bound to suffer the same fate as the others. It is especially hard when a parent is trying to keep a five year old quiet, all the time. To squelch all signs of happiness about life from her daughter's existence breaks Roza's heart, a heart that can't take any more breaking.
They are starving and Roza gives Shiva all of her scraps of food, barely staying alive herself. They freeze, they swelter, and they can never make a sound. Plus Roza's body is a bargaining chip to keep them in their hovel, although how long the barn loft can protect them is limited. Eventually Roza has to make the same decision that wartime parents have had to make before and since her time. Give her beloved Shiva, the only reason she still cares to exist, away to those who might be able to hide her and save her.
The story is heartbreaking and we see how much so many people suffer but also sacrifice for others. We also see that even once the enemy is conquered, the hoped for saviors are little better. As I've read other historical fiction where parents have sent their children away with no promise of ever seeing them again, I have wondered if I could do the same. What a tragic life that requires giving up that which one loves the most and we get to see all the guilt and regret such a decision can bring. I look forward to listening to Once We Were Home next.
Pub Mar 3, 2020
Narrated by Anna Koval
I'm planning to listen to Jennifer Rosner's Once We Were Home but before I do I decided to listen to her earlier book on the same subject, The Yellow Bird Sings. This story deals with the separation of a mother and daughter, twenty five year old Roza and her five year old daughter, Shira. When we meet them, living in a tiny loft in a worn down barn, they have already lost the rest of their family to the violence that was the purging of the Jews in 1941 Poland.
Roza is terrified that she won't be able to protect Shira. She is also exhausted with the constant threat of being found and her daughter being brutalized and killed. She's tried shelter Shira from what really happened to her father, her grandparents, friends and neighbors but when the horror is all around them it seems that they are bound to suffer the same fate as the others. It is especially hard when a parent is trying to keep a five year old quiet, all the time. To squelch all signs of happiness about life from her daughter's existence breaks Roza's heart, a heart that can't take any more breaking.
They are starving and Roza gives Shiva all of her scraps of food, barely staying alive herself. They freeze, they swelter, and they can never make a sound. Plus Roza's body is a bargaining chip to keep them in their hovel, although how long the barn loft can protect them is limited. Eventually Roza has to make the same decision that wartime parents have had to make before and since her time. Give her beloved Shiva, the only reason she still cares to exist, away to those who might be able to hide her and save her.
The story is heartbreaking and we see how much so many people suffer but also sacrifice for others. We also see that even once the enemy is conquered, the hoped for saviors are little better. As I've read other historical fiction where parents have sent their children away with no promise of ever seeing them again, I have wondered if I could do the same. What a tragic life that requires giving up that which one loves the most and we get to see all the guilt and regret such a decision can bring. I look forward to listening to Once We Were Home next.
Pub Mar 3, 2020