The Yellow Bird Sings by Jennifer Rosner
Emotional, heartbreaking and hopeful, The Yellow Bird Sings (Flatiron Books) by Jennifer Rosner touches the music of your soul. It is 1941 Poland; Roza and Shira, mother and daughter, are Jews, hidden in a barn by farmers. After their family was violently taken from them, they have no choice but to go into hiding. Henryk, the farmer, ensures their safety while violating Roza in the night, and his wife Krystyna provides extra food for Shira; she believes all children deserve an equal chance. Roza and Shira, silenced and afraid, lay quietly in the barn’s hay for more than 15 months. They revisit their cherished memories, whisper stories, use their imagination, and create music in their heads to soothe themselves and pass the time.
When the Germans announce plans to use the farmer’s barn for storage, mother and daughter must find a new safe space right away. They are encouraged to separate so Shira can go to a convent to have lessons and be with other children, allowing her a better chance of surviving. Filled with sadness, regret and fear, Roza is on her own and heads to the forest.
The Yellow Bird Sings will rip your heart out as you feel the emotional and physical struggles of both mother and daughter; at first stifled, secluded and living in silence with the burden and horrific fear of the unknown, with only what is inside their minds and their hearts to comfort and sustain them as they live day by day in hiding. And then separated, longing to be together, doing everything possible to survive.
Rosner tells an extraordinary story with beautiful use of language; her words and phrases are visual and powerful:
“Words … are like glass beads around her neck. If one were to break loose, they would all clatter to the floor and scatter, shatter the quiet that kept her and her mother alive, entwined beneath hay.”
On understanding loss, “What is whole does not comprehend what is torn until it, too, is in shreds.”
When seeing other mothers with their children, “Something breaks loose inside Roza and skitters down the stairs of her heart.”
We follow Roza and Shira on their separate journeys, holding out hope that they will be reunited after the war. With a blanket from the past, a magic yellow bird, cherished memories in their minds and soulful music in their hearts, The Yellow Bird Sings delivers a powerful story of Roza and Shira’s incredible survival, their unbreakable connection, their will to be heard, and the celebration of music that, through the generations, links us to each other.
I had the opportunity to speak with Rosner about her novel.
What inspired you to use music in such a big way in your novel?
I sang as a child and later trained to become an opera singer. My singing forged a rare connection between my mother and me. My father played violin daily, which brought us closer to each other and to Judaism. In my novel, music conveys hope, even in the most brutal of circumstances.
Shira has a special relationship with her violin teacher. Who inspired this character?
It felt important for Shira to feel a profound connection to the person who coached her and supported her musical genius.
What is the significance of the magic yellow bird that Shira conjures and is featured in Roza’s nightly stories?
While Shira must be silent, her yellow bird sings out the music she hears in her head and enacts the childhood she cannot. Her bird brings security as well as expression. It admits her powerful imagination (and her mother’s) into their horror-filled situation. I believe that much survival occurred because people kept alive their imaginations and stayed aware of what beauty they could find in their circumstances.
Why were you interested in writing about a mom having to keep her child silent?
The seed for this story came when I was at a book event for my memoir about deafness. (If A Tree Falls: A Family’s Quest to Hear and Be Heard). My daughters were born deaf. With hearing technology (cochlear implants and hearing aids), they were learning to listen and talk. After the event, a woman from the audience told me about her childhood experience, hiding in an attic with her mother during World War II. She had to stay entirely silent. I tried to imagine what it must have been like for her, and also her mother. While I so wanted our daughters to speak, this mother had to keep her young child from making any sound at all. From this seed, my novel grew.
Once the story splits into two when Rosa and Shira go their separate ways, did you write the book in the order that we read it, or did you write one character’s story and then the other’s?
In later drafts, I wrote the chapters mostly in the order they appear. However, earlier in the process, I wrote out long swaths of each character’s story trajectory, to understand where they were going and how their stories might dovetail. There was a lot of cutting and reworking!
What kind of research did you do for the book? How long did it take to write?
While I was writing the book, I interviewed several “hidden children” — adults who, as children during the war, were secreted in attics, barns and the woods. I also traveled to the settings of my novel. In Poland I visited areas of countryside with barns much like the one I’ve written about. I visited a convent where Jewish children were hidden, and I went to a swath of deep forest where a Partisan/family camp was formed.
I consulted with experts on Holocaust history and convent life. I talked to a tracker to learn how my character could traverse the forest without leaving a trace. A Polish translator (also a mushroom forager) advised me on which mushrooms my character might find in the woods. And I consulted with a musicologist and a master-class violinist, as I sought to discover how a prodigy like Shira would practice and progress, and what she would play. It took years to conceive of and write this novel.
How did you choose the musical pieces you refer to in the book?
I listened to a lot of music before choosing pieces; I wanted to make sure each one contributed to the story and that it would fit Shira’s circumstance and her level of playing. For example, I chose Ravel’s “Kaddish” for Shira to play since it is so haunting and evocative.
How did you learn about the resistance camps and why did you choose to set your story in Poland?
I learned about the Jewish Partisans years ago from a friend who is a documentary filmmaker. (Julia Mintz is a producer/director/writer and her film is The Jewish Partisans.) When it came to researching my novel, I went to an area of Polish forest — in winter — to understand what it would be like for my character. I read innumerable accounts of people hiding in wooded camps. We can’t overestimate the ingenuity, strength and perseverance they brought to their survival.
Can you tell us about the cover of your book?
The brilliant art director at Flatiron developed the cover. He based it on a torn photograph, signaling that something is torn in the story. (The Picador UK cover, wildly different, is also wonderful; it suggest elements of an enchanted garden floating out from a barn window.)
What have you read lately that you recommend?
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, Lila by Marilynne Robinson, The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish, Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan, and Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat.
Are you going on book tour and where can we expect to see you?
Yes, I will be scheduling events, starting with a book launch on my publication date, March 3, 2020. I will keep an events list running on my website (www.jennifer-rosner.com) and would be happy to receive invitations to read, to attend book clubs, etc.!
Are you working on a new book yet?
I have just begun a new novel — but it’s too preliminary to describe! Stay tuned.
The Yellow Bird Sings is now available for purchase.
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