Only the Birds Are Free: The Story of a War Child in Greece

Rating:
Summary: A Moving Story of Survival and Triumph
Review: "What could possibly happen?" the nine year-old narrator innocently wonders in the third chapter of this remarkable wartime memoir. Over the next three hundred pages of Only The Birds Are Free: The Story of a War Child in Greece, Anna Christake Cornwell relates, with devastating eloquence, how everything could and did happen to her family in Nazi-occupied Greece.

As the book opens, her father departs for America, promising to send for her, her mother, and brother-and leaving them to fend for themselves. War intervenes and they find themselves stranded, forced to depend on the charity of relatives. They endure bombing raids and every other imaginable terror and hardship as they flee from villages to monasteries, and mountain encampments, seeking safety from the blood baths of the German raids. No sanctuary lasts for long, and their story is one of multiplying disasters.

Cornwell's language is lively and fierce at times as the young voice of Anna(Ionna in the book). The perceptions of this brave and imaginative girl hold the reader's attention so powerfully that we relive her experiences-we too run wildly away from the Stukas airplanes that strafe the fleeing villagers, see the unbearable aftermath of land mines and the slaughters of entire villages, take solace in the stilled beauty of the Zdani Monastery, and know what it is to be devoured by cold, hunger and illness to almost the point of death. We race through a torrent of bullets, share a desperate escape into wintry mountains pursued by murderous Nazis, and scale a narrow moonlit path at the very edge of a crevasse.

But the reader also revels in memories of happier times and fleeting moments of joy. We witness a pre-war religious holiday full of feasting and dancing, see the awakening of early spring at the Zdani Monastery, and share in Anna's spiritual contemplations from an icy, starlit precipice. We marvel at the survival of a geography schoolbook which she had stowed under a rock as she fled yet another temporary home. Ultimately, Only The Birds Are Free is not a bleak book, but one that presents a moving vision of hope against all odds.

Perhaps the most stirring passages concern the young Anna's involvement with the partisan struggle and her determination to play a strong role in the youth liberation movement. Eventually she becomes a member of the youth resistance executive board, and takes on harrowing but inspiring responsibilities. The journey she takes in the course of this story is an inner as well as an outer one, and we watch her evolve from a sensitive, precocious child into a fervent, fourteen year-old revolutionary.

In this memoir we find a bracing reminder of the realities of war, and a clear rendering of its miseries and atrocities. Only The Birds Are Free is an important book for any time, but it takes on a special significance, now, with the military action in Iraq. I am especially thankful to have read it in this most uncertain and anxious of times.

Rating:
Summary: A Moving Story of Survival and Triumph
Review: "What could possibly happen?" the nine year-old narrator innocently wonders in the third chapter of this remarkable wartime memoir. Over the next three hundred pages of Only The Birds Are Free: The Story of a War Child in Greece, Anna Christake Cornwell relates, with devastating eloquence, how everything could and did happen to her family in Nazi-occupied Greece.

As the book opens, her father departs for America, promising to send for her, her mother, and brother-and leaving them to fend for themselves. War intervenes and they find themselves stranded, forced to depend on the charity of relatives. They endure bombing raids and every other imaginable terror and hardship as they flee from villages to monasteries, and mountain encampments, seeking safety from the blood baths of the German raids. No sanctuary lasts for long, and their story is one of multiplying disasters.

Cornwell's language is lively and fierce at times as the young voice of Anna(Ionna in the book). The perceptions of this brave and imaginative girl hold the reader's attention so powerfully that we relive her experiences-we too run wildly away from the Stukasairplanes that strafe the fleeing villagers, see the unbearable aftermath of land mines and the slaughters of entire villages, take solace in the stilled beauty of the Zdani Monastery, and know what it is to be devoured by cold, hunger and illness to almost the point of death. We race through a torrent of bullets, share a desperate escape into wintry mountains pursued by murderous Nazis, and scale a narrow moonlit path at the very edge of a crevasse.

But the reader also revels in memories of happier times and fleeting moments of joy. We witness a pre-war religious holiday full of feasting and dancing, see the awakening of early spring at the Zdani Monastery, and share in Anna's spiritual contemplations from an icy, starlit precipice. We marvel at the survival of a geography schoolbook which she had stowed under a rock as she fled yet another temporary home. Ultimately, Only The Birds Are Free is not a bleak book, but one that presents a moving vision of hope against all odds.

Perhaps the most stirring passages concern the young Anna's involvement with the partisan struggle and her determination to play a strong role in the youth liberation movement. Eventually she becomes a member of the youth resistance executive board, and takes on harrowing but inspiring responsibilities. The journey she takes in the course of this story is an inner as well as an outer one, and we watch her evolve from a sensitive, precocious child into a fervent, fourteen year-old revolutionary.

In this memoir we find a bracing reminder of the realities of war, and a clear rendering of its miseries and atrocities. Only The Birds Are Free is an important book for any time, but it takes on a special significance, now, with the military action in Iraq. I am especially thankful to have read it in this most uncertain and anxious of times.

Rating:
Summary: A Unique Story, Well Told -- For Adults and Teenagers
Review: The story of the child adrift in World War II is, regrettably, a familiar one. From Anne Frank on, we share stories of hidden children, dying children, children entering adolescence during wartime, and much more. Such stories are always appalling and rarely boring -- and generally focused on northern Europe. A western reader may well not comprehend the horrors that affected people in other parts of the world.

Writing as an adult, Anna Christake Cornwell gives a youngster's-eye-view of World War II in Greece. American-born of Greek parents, she, her little brother, and their mother were visiting relatives in Greece when war broke out.

Americans may believe that Germany, the low countries, France, and perhaps Italy were where the war touched. In fact, as Anna relates, where YOU are is always the center of hostilities.

War in Greece was no sideshow -- not when Greek, German, English, Italian, or American soldiers might appear as friend or foe. Murders and assassinations, imprisonings of loved and respected adults, deportations to concentration camps, the leveling of her secure village -- young Anna witnessed them all.

War is chaos. What do you do when your entire village is destroyed? Anna takes us to the moments when the residents set out, walking, into the mountains, away from hostilities, led by hope, heading toward who knew where. What do you do when you and your family must leave the monastery where you've been sheltering? Anna shares those fears: the dread of the unknown, the terror of the known.

There are moments of lightness: a rediscovered friendship, a budding young love, cherished moments of closeness with the older relatives among whom she found herself. There are moments of contemplation: the thoughts of the young American, tossed into a maelstrom so far from home.

This is no formulaic, written-by-numbers, coming-of-age story. Young adult readers may enjoy the extraordinary experiences of someone their own age. But adults will hear the voice of the mature Anna as well. "Only the Birds are Free" is a unique and inspiring story.

To me, its only drawback is that it ends, leaving us wondering what happened to young Anna when she arrived back in a fear-free United States. How does one go from years without schooling to a Ph.D.? from an ancient monastery with no electricity and not much food to America's postwar opulence and cleanliness? To those of us born in the U.S. after the war, it's astounding to realize how many people around us faced these same issues, and we have not heard their stories -- nor do we even know they have stories.

Rating:
Summary: A Unique Story, Well Told -- For Adults and Teenagers
Review: The story of the child adrift in World War II is, regrettably, a familiar one. From Anne Frank on, we share stories of hidden children, dying children, children entering adolescence during wartime, and much more. Such stories are always appalling and rarely boring -- and generally focused on northern Europe. A western reader may well not comprehend the horrors that affected people in other parts of the world.

Writing as an adult, Anna Christake Cornwell gives a youngster's-eye-view of World War II in Greece. American-born of Greek parents, she, her little brother, and their mother were visiting relatives in Greece when war broke out.

Americans may believe that Germany, the low countries, France, and perhaps Italy were where the war touched. In fact, as Anna relates, where YOU are is always the center of hostilities.

War in Greece was no sideshow -- not when Greek, German, English, Italian, or American soldiers might appear as friend or foe. Murders and assassinations, imprisonings of loved and respected adults, deportations to concentration camps, the leveling of her secure village -- young Anna witnessed them all.

War is chaos. What do you do when your entire village is destroyed? Anna takes us to the moments when the residents set out, walking, into the mountains, away from hostilities, led by hope, heading toward who knew where. What do you do when you and your family must leave the monastery where you've been sheltering? Anna shares those fears: the dread of the unknown, the terror of the known.

There are moments of lightness: a rediscovered friendship, a budding young love, cherished moments of closeness with the older relatives among whom she found herself. There are moments of contemplation: the thoughts of the young American, tossed into a maelstrom so far from home.

This is no formulaic, written-by-numbers, coming-of-age story. Young adult readers may enjoy the extraordinary experiences of someone their own age. But adults will hear the voice of the mature Anna as well. "Only the Birds are Free" is a unique and inspiring story.

To me, its only drawback is that it ends, leaving us wondering what happened to young Anna when she arrived back in a fear-free United States. How does one go from years without schooling to a Ph.D.? from an ancient monastery with no electricity and not much food to America's postwar opulence and cleanliness? To those of us born in the U.S. after the war, it's astounding to realize how many people around us faced these same issues, and we have not heard their stories -- nor do we even know they have stories.

Rating:
Summary: Growing Up in the Midst of War
Review: This is a wholly remarkable book. If the story were fiction, it would make an exciting action-adventure movie set against a backdrop of breathtaking Greek countryside, replete with enriching insights into Greek cultural life. That the story is true, and that the events and people described are very real, makes it all the more gripping. But to know that this is the childhood story of my friend and colleague, Anna Christake Cornwell, takes my breath away.

From the opening page, I was struck by the unusual use of present tense coupled with quoted dialogue. The effect was immediate, drawing me in, and would not relinquish its hold on me throughout the book. I felt as if I were there! As the story unfolded and I became more emotionally involved in the characters and their struggles, the book became so thoroughly engaging it was impossible to put down!

Anna's coming-of-age during the war against fascism is a fantastic story in its own right. Robbed of a normal childhood by an invading army and forced to live as a refugee, she nonetheless struggled to maintain her youthful sense of joy and wonder. After experiencing the horrifying loss of family members and friends, Anna took up the cause of freedom by joining the Greek Resistance. As a youth leader, she gave of herself to others, serving as an educator and an agent of social change. Her story causes me to ask myself whether I would (or could) have risen to the occasion and acted so positively and unselfishly as she, if I were in her place.

I am stunned by the brutality, suffering and deprivation that Anna, her family, and the Greek people were forced to endure. Her story, which could not be more timely with regard to world affairs, hardens my belief that war, which brings death, destruction, and misery to so many, is simply not acceptable. The bright spots in this otherwise sobering tale are the glimpses we see of the Greek people's joy and celebration of life, and Anna's personal hopes and dreams for a better future. She stands out as a shining example of a young person who is determined and dedicated to making the world a better place in which to live. I feel fortunate to know Anna, I am honored to be her friend, and I am gratified that she has given us this incredible account of her early years.