Changes

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search
no edit summary
|title=The Song of the Stork
|sort= Song of the Stork
|author=Stephen Stephan Collishaw
|reviewer= Phil Lewis
|genre=Literary Fiction
}}
Stephen Stephan Collishaw has achieved a rare feat – a novel set amidst the horrors of Nazi tyranny that does not shy away from human suffering, but does not drown in it either.
''The Song of the Stork'' tells the story of Yael, a 15-year-old Jewish girl on the run from the Nazis, living in the wilderness somewhere (I think) around the Polish/Lithuanian border. The exact location isn't made clear, but it's a place of bitterly cold winters. We meet Yael just as her companion, Rivka, succumbs to illness, leaving Yael to fend for herself in the forest. She stumbles across a house belonging to Aleksei, a dark and mysterious mute with a love of Russian literature. Relations are at first cool, with Yael forced to sleep in the hen-coop, and Aleksei bringing her blankets and water (itself an act of incredible courage in the circumstances). As time progresses a quiet attachment develops between the pair, and Yael moves first into the house and eventually into Aleksei's bed.

Navigation menu