‘At once tightly written and suspenseful, Collishaw’s historical novel is a darkly compassionate fable of human endurance in absolute extremity.’

Stevie Davies

‘An elegantly crafted, beautifully written novel about love, survival and hope against all the odds – The Song of the Stork is a reading experience to savour.’

William Ryan

‘The subtle melody of The Song of the Stork caught my soul with its first notes and didn’t leave me until the very last ones. Stephan Collishaw takes your hand and leads you into a world of tragic beauty, inspiring strength and delicate kindness in the midst of horror and through this journey he reminds you of the sound of hope.’

Aistė Diržiūtė

‘The Song of The Stork is a harrowing novel about a Jewish girl abandoned in World War 2 and forced to fend for herself in a landscape crawling with sexual ambiguity and brutal violence. It’s a dark jewel that holds up for examination the proximity of terror and savagery to innocence and love. Yet The Song of The Stork is as much about the future as the past. Stephan Collishaw warns us how the times we live in might end up: with an oafish peasantry drunk on Brexit chasing children through the woods, just because their parents voted Remain.’

Guy Kennaway

‘…a masterly work of condensed fiction that synthesises the art of a great writer with the knowledge of a keen researcher who has become immersed in the first-hand sources of the period… A beautiful book that will go down as one of the classics of the literature of the anti-Nazi partisans in the forests around Vilna during the Holocaust.’

Dovid Katz

‘…tense, vivid, effortlessly real… a novel of dramatic width and ambition.’

Julie Myerson, The Guardian

‘Wonderful… that rare novel which no-one, having once read, will be able to forget.’

Alan Sillitoe

‘Haunting… has an extraordinary ring of authenticity… fascinating.’

Washington Times

‘It has energy and it has assurance, and the story is really powerful. Collishaw has a great gift for showing the dailiness of terrible times.’

Helen Dunmore

‘Collishaw’s latest evokes Hemingway’s war-torn landscapes with spare language and haunting imagery… a sensuous tale of survival… an intensely moving account of this war and the scars it has left.’

Good Book Guide

‘Gripping… A haunting and ultimately uplifting tale of love, friendship and betrayal.’

Waterstones Books Quarterly

‘Collishaw is impressive in his descriptions of war… The struggle of a man to return from such horrors and try to live as a loving husband and father is described by him in heartbreaking detail. This is a compulsive read.’

Sue McNab, Nottingham Evening Post

‘The bittersweet love story at the core of this tale… really strikes the deepest chord… a captivating read.’

Kathryn Moore, Yorkshire Post