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The Yellow Bird Sings: A Novel Audiobook
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This program includes an exclusive author's note read by the author.
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.
A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books
Praise for The Yellow Bird Sings:
"Rosner’s exquisite, heart-rending debut novel is proof that there’s always going to be room for another story about World War II....This is an absolutely beautiful and necessary novel, full of heartbreak but also hope, about the bond between mother and daughter, and the sacrifices made for love." — New York Times Book Review
“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. Jennifer Rosner is a writer to watch.” — Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Huntress and The Alice Network
“The Yellow Bird Sings is 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, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours and Before and After
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“Memoirist and award-winning children's author Rosner challenges the Holocaust with a touch of magic (the yellow bird appears throughout), clarifying a dangerous time and place even as she offers a vibrant, affecting portrait of the mother-daughter relationship.
— Library Journal (starred review)
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“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, New York Times bestselling author -
“A brilliant and transporting novel.”
— Margot Livesey, New York Times bestselling author -
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 -
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
The Yellow Bird Sings Listener Reviews
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" I read a lot of WW2 historical fiction and non-fiction books. This book was sweet and I enjoyed it. It highlighted the plight of so many displaced children and their heartbroken parents. I have a granddaughter who loves to read and has become interested in these types of books. I am so pleased because I feel this younger generation hasn't a clue of the atrocities visited on the Jews and others by Hitler's horrible regimen "
— Lark Rials, 10/22/2022
About Jennifer Rosner
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. Rosner’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.