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|title=The Song of the Stork

|sort= Song of the Stork

|reviewer= Phil Lewis

|genre=Literary Fiction

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''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.