Anna and the Swallow Man

Carried away on the wings of a bird, Gavriel Shavit takes his readers on a beautifully poetic journey
through a horrific time in world history.  The Swallow Man could be real or an allegory for someone or something that helps a young girl to escape the atrocities of the Holocaust.

This novel, Anna and the Swallow Man explains the horrors in a very shrouded way.  Anna is a young child at the start of the German takeover of Poland.  Her father, a professor, is rounded up during the purge of Polish intellectuals. A family friend takes her in for a day until it becomes clear that Professor Lania is not going to return.  Turned out into the street, Anna Lania must learn to take care of herself at the young age of seven.

She meets a man who reminds her of her father.  The Swallow Man has many talents, the gift of speaking many languages, how to survive in the wilderness, dodge bombs, tame soldiers and to make friends.  He can speak Polish, Russian, German and Yiddish.  He can even speak Bird, when he entices a swallow to swoop down into his hand.  There are many mysteries surrounding the man who leads Anna into the Forest.  Who he is, his background and what he escaping are all questions that follow us through the book.  But these seem to be unimportant to Anna as she follows him adnd learns how to live the life of secrecy needed to survive.

He takes Anna under his wing and they survive for years in the forest creating their own language, "Wood".   She becomes Sweetie and he is Swallow Man.  They do not talk about the reality they came from.  He explains that there is a different sounding word in every language for birds and other objects.  So he continues the logic, "The thing is, I'm trying to teach you a whole new language.  My language: Road.  And in Road there's more than one to say everything.  It's very tricky."

Wonderfully written this story touches on the terrible behaviors of human kind during World War ll, but in such a subtle way that it is readable by teens and those who do not want too much detail about the Holocaust.