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Anna and the Swallow Man
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
A stunning, literary, and wholly original debut novel set in Poland during the Second World War perfect for readers of The Book Thief. Krakw, 1939. A million marching soldiers and a thousand barking dogs. This is no place to grow up.Anna ?ania is just seven years old when the Germans take her father, a linguistics professor, during their purge of intellectuals in Poland. Shes alone. And then Anna meets the Swallow Man.He is a mystery, strange and tall, a skilled deceiver with more than a little magic up his sleeve. And when the soldiers in the streets look at him, they see what he wants them to see. The Swallow Man is not Annas fathershe knows that very wellbut she also knows that, like her father, hes in danger of being taken, and like her father, he has a gift for languages: Polish, Russian, German, Yiddish, even Bird. When he summons a bright, beautiful swallow down to his hand to stop her from crying, Anna is entranced. She follows him into the wilderness. Over the course of their travels together, Anna and the Swallow Man will dodge bombs, tame soldiers, and even, despite their better judgment, make a friend. But in a world gone mad, everything can prove dangerous. Even the Swallow Man. Destined to become a classic, Gavriel Savits stunning debut reveals lifes hardest lessons while celebrating its miraculous possibilities.
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Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Tagged by the fabulous @MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm

📚 Hamlet, not by choice. 9th grade honors English, 10th grade English, and 12th grade drama.

📚 A pretty cover certainly helps. I'm more likely to at least read the blurb on a pretty book, but if the cover is ugly, I won't bother unless there's strong word of mouth.

📚 Tagged. Most of it takes place out in nature.

#thoughtfulthursday @MoonWitch94

If you want to play, you're tagged.

MoonWitch94 Omg I‘ve read Hamlet more times for school than I ever needed/wanted! 😳 I totally agree with you about 2. Thanks for playing ☺️📚🌿 4y
39 likes1 comment
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megnews
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Pickpick

A strange but beautiful story that leaves one with more questions than answers. I suppose that‘s life during the uncertainty of war. Like others, I felt the ending was somewhat of a let down, but it didn‘t take away from the feeling this short book left me with.

Tamra I liked this one too! 4y
Eggs I liked it too 4y
46 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Mehso-so

Though this takes place in Poland during WW2, this was a fairly quiet book. When 7 year old Anna's father doesn't come home, the little Jewish girl is all alone. She meets the Swallow Man who takes her under his wing and together they hide throughout the forests, trying to lay low. While interesting, a good portion of this is lacking "oomph" to really make it a full on pick. This was my #doublespin read & is now off my shelf. @TheAromaofBooks

megnews That‘s disappointing. I had this on my list to read this month but didn‘t get to it. 5y
Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick @megnews It wasn't bad, just not a stand out. It's short and I read through it pretty quickly, so I wouldn't discourage you from reading it. 5y
TheAromaofBooks I feel like I've read a lot of books this year that are just kind of “meh“, so I feel you! 5y
29 likes3 comments
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Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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With 73 pages left before I check off all my personal #EasterExtravaganza Readathon goals, I did finish the egg hunt. This book has a textured cover (like a fancy, marbled cardstock), A's on the cover, "suddenly", a dog, and stars.
@SumisBooks @Andrew65

Andrew65 Wow! A great return 👏👏👏 5y
27 likes1 comment
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Kelly_the_Bookish_Sidekick
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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1. Tagged
2. I couldn't decide between my new phrase or the perfectly timed pic of this pup & a bubble. #spaceman
3. Reading, keeping a general schedule, and weekly home manicure. I also instituted a rule: no official work without proper pants & a bra.
4. Milk chocolate
@4thhouseontheleft @howjessreads #friyayintro

alisiakae Great pic! 5y
27 likes1 comment
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smallthings
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Pickpick

I love the first half of this book. The story feels like a grim fairytale. I'm from Poland and I really appreciated the way it was described. But near the end it stopped working for me. The twist and turns, the reality check - though maybe necessary - felt heavy handed. But I going to ignore the imperfections cause it was still a memorable read.

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Blueberry
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Eggs Nicely done 👏🏻👏🏻. I read Anna and the Swallow Man a few years ago-odd but good! 5y
43 likes1 comment
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Blueberry
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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OriginalCyn620 👌🏻📚🇵🇱 5y
60 likes1 stack add1 comment
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sophierayton
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Pickpick

I was really on board with this book until a few surprising scenes towards the end which made me like it less. Until then I would have happily have gifted this book to some young readers, now I would recommend 15+ which I think is a shame.
That aside, this is still a really well written, thoughtful book and I liked it very much.

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parasolofdoom
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
Bailedbailed

Pretty prose, boring plot. Ditching out at 1/3

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parasolofdoom
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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This week's listen

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Tamra
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Pickpick

I binge listened to this and it‘s now on my TB “to buy” list. I loved the theme of language and the language itself is gorgeous in parts. There is an overall ambiguity cultivated, especially with The Swallow Man character, but it adds to the suspense and fairytale quality of the story. The narrator is very good, but I‘m rather surprised one with a Polish or German accent wasn‘t used. It may have really lent to the atmosphere created. 👍🏾

BookwormM This is on my TBR will have to bump it up the list 7y
103 likes3 stack adds1 comment
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Foragingfantasy
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
Pickpick

Anna and the Swallow Man was a beautiful story. I loved the tone and the parts that were vague didn't bother me at all. It was melancholy, but in a way that I enjoy. Pick for me.

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Foragingfantasy
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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It says for fans of The Book Thief. I'm hopeful.

39 likes1 stack add
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Kimmie
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Pickpick

A lot to think about in this book. How war destroys but hope grows

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introvertedbooks
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Playing MLB The Show and listening to a book. Can it get any better than this? #winterreads #bookchallenges #januaryreads

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Kaylamburson
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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I finished my 2017 #LitsyAtoZ challenge from @BookishMarginalia just under the wire! All of them are titles, except "K" is the author. A couple at the end were cheaters in my opinion (X-Men and The Quiet Book), but I'm still happy I finished, and I'm going to count it for myself! Wahoo!! ??????

cocomass 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 7y
Bookzombie 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 7y
See All 10 Comments
mjdowens 👍👏👏👏 7y
Betty 🎉🎉🎉 7y
ephemeralwaltz 👍👍🎉🎉🎉 7y
Pamwurtzler Yay!!! 7y
Jas16 🙌🏽 7y
BarbaraJean Congrats!! 🍾🎈🎉 🙌🏼 I‘m finishing my #LitsyAtoZ under the wire as well...120 pages to go! 7y
105 likes10 comments
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Blueberry
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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59 likes3 stack adds
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Blueberry
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Three five star reads (on top) and three from my tbr.
#UncannyOctober #SetinEasternEurope

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TheresaReads
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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I am in love with this book! I am listening to it right now, but I will be purchasing it.

6 likes2 stack adds
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TheresaReads
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Schlinkles
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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All the work tasks are done for the day, on to this month's young adult book club pick #eshaverbookseller

5 likes1 stack add
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lisaswestcoastreads
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Can't wait to read 📖

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eshchory
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Mehso-so

This was a first for me - I actually coughed up a couple of bucks for an e-book. A pity the book wasn't more of a success.
It is glaringly obvious that this is a debut with the author trying so hard to impress. And there was some beautiful writing but it didn't flow naturally within the narrative. After the initial novelty wore off the story got lost and the author never quite brought back on track.

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readsusieread
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Pickpick

I'm on a teen award judge team. My genre is historical fiction. This is the first I finished. I listened to it and it was an immersive little story, full of heart. I definitely recommend.

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alibrarianslibrary
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Mehso-so

I mean, the narration was good. And I can see why it made top audiobooks of the year lists. But the story itself was weird and didn't resolve. Or maybe I was just waiting for it to end that I didn't even pay attention. Either way, meeehhh next.

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Kaylamburson
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Mehso-so

I am disappointed by the ending. It does leave you questioning, as seems to be the goal of the author on every page, but this isn't even answered in the unsatisfactory way of the Swallow Man. I'm not sure what happened. Anyone who has read it have any thoughts?!

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Kaylamburson
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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So far sitting around for jury duty is pretty great. I'm basically getting paid to read all day!

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mrsa_d
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
This post contains spoilers
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Mehso-so

I love everything about this book except the part where she has to take off all her clothes for the pharmacist. I can see how it works in the story and the denouement where she comes out of the fairy tale she's been living in and into adulthood, I just hate that it's like "oops she forgot everything the swallow man taught her and now the only way out is to strip." This is the sole reason I'm not making this a "pick"

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mrsa_d
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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When will I learn to not read on my lunch break? 20 pages in and I just want to know more!!!!

5 likes1 stack add
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Nitpickyabouttrains
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Mehso-so

I knew this was a World War Two book from the perspective of a child, but I still did not get what I was expecting. It was a short book, that read quickly and kept me in. But the last section was not satisfying.

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scripturient
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Mehso-so

I liked this book about loss and the choice to disappear but it did not blow me away like I thought it would. It is clever and moving and philosophical but I was missing the little 'extra' that makes novels like 'The Book Thief' or 'All the Lights we cannot see' great (this book has been compared to both but can't live up to them in my humble opinion).

mcctrish I felt this book had a different tone than the 2 you mentioned and it was YA. It felt haunting to a certain extent. I wonder if the comparison was just to serve as a " if you liked these, try this...." 8y
merelybookish This felt quite different to me. Perhaps the lack of specifics and details, which I associate with BT and ATLWCS. Plus big jumps in time and space. 8y
95 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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scripturient
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Office reading. :)

Simona Cool 😎 8y
CrowCAH Love it! 😁 8y
113 likes1 stack add2 comments
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ReadItAndWeep
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Pickpick

In a Q&A, Savit says that what he want readers to get from "Anna and the Swallow Man" is "Questions. And the urge to find and ask more of them." Well, I certainly have questions! Like yelling "what?" after reading the end of the book-- which also ends on a question. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed listening to this book and Allan Corduner did a wonderful job narrating Savit's carefully crafted novel. #odysseywinner

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Blueberry
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Pickpick

Really good. I read it in one day. Set right before WW2 in Poland. 7 year old Anna's father is arrested up by the German police. He is an intellectual. He does not return. She meets the Swallow Man, follows him, rescues him, and they traipse around avoiding soldiers trying to survive. I didn't like the ending much, which seems to be a regular comment.
#WW2

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Sydsavvy
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Pickpick

This book. So weird but also pretty good. Starts out a bit like "The Book Thief" then wonders around, then becomes like a Neil Gaiman book. Ok then. "The world as it exists is a very, very dangerous place."

34 likes2 stack adds
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itsabbe
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Happy New Year, littens! I'm starting off 2017 with a reading challenge. Here's my first haul (A-G) for #litsyatoz! #bookishresolutions

RadicalReader @itsabbe I am agreeing wholeheartedly with you when you say bring a book for every day you'll be on vacation and for everyday you will be away can never have enough books so enjoyable and time passing worthy 8y
itsabbe @RadicalReader I never regret bringing too many books with me when I go away. Though, maybe I don't bring too many books, because, as you say, you can never have too many! 8y
8 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Eggs
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Anna felt herself drowning in the empty stillness. It was the first time she had said it, the very first time she had even allowed herself to think it so clearly: She did not think her father would come back.

14 likes2 stack adds
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mcctrish
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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If you have read Ruta Sepetys 'salt to the sea' I think you would like this book and its telling of the events in WW2 in Poland

14 likes1 stack add
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mcctrish
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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lizzi.librarian
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Pickpick

Beautiful.

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JewishBookCouncil
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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"Because," said the Swallow Man. "A friend is not someone to whom you give the things that you need when the world is at war. A friend is someone to whom you give the things that you need when the world is at peace." #JewLit

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Bookbento
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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One of our favorite YA reads, mystical and magical WWII fiction.

LaurenAsh This photo is fantastic! 8y
elemreads what a beautiful cover ! 8y
71 likes18 stack adds2 comments
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TheRelentlessReader
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Pickpick

I finished this beautiful read last night. Moving, lyrical, melancholy. "Human beings are the best hope in the world of other human beings to survive."

7 likes1 stack add
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TheRelentlessReader
Anna and the Swallow Man | Gavriel Savit
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Lunchtime reading 😊💕📚💕

BethFishReads Loved 8y
Gulfsidemusing On my list! 8y
melamorphosis @TheRelentlessReader I am going to start this book tomorrow. It is on my schools reading list for 8th graders. Thinking of all the lessons, questions and themes that will come out of this one. Glad to hear it's good. 8y
9 likes1 stack add4 comments