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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. She's 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 Anna's father - she knows that very well - but she also knows that, like her father, he's in danger of being taken, and like her father, he has a gift for languages: Polish, Russian, German, Yiddish, even Bird.