Poland’s Daughter: How I Met Basia, Hitchhiked to Italy and Learned About Love, War and Exile
A many layered story about the sentimental education of an American student in post-war Europe told with wit, sensitivity and elegance.
Books
2014 Vol. 6 No. 1 — Winter-Spring / Books
2014 Vol. 6 No. 1 — Winter-Spring / Books
The Assassin from Apricot City: Reportage from Turkey
(…) Every Turk hovers between tradition and modernity a thousand times a day – the hat or the charshaf [veil]; the mosque or the disco; the European Union or dislike the European Union. Until you can explore this country, writes Katarzyna Zwolak, read Witold Szablowski’s wonderful book.
2014 Vol. 6 No. 1 — Winter-Spring / Books
Warsaw 1944: Hitler, Himmler, and the Warsaw Uprising
With access to hitherto unused archives, historian Alexandra Richie brings little-known facts and a sobering description of the barbaric destruction of the people and the city of Warsaw.
2013 Vol. 5 No. 3 — Fall / Books
The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of One of Britain’s Bravest Heroines
Britain’s most spectacular secret agent was brave, loyal, irresistibly beautiful, and “a law unto herself.” Author Clare Mulley pens an excellent study of the fascinating Krystyna Skarbek/Christine Granville.
2013 Vol. 5 No. 3 — Fall / Books
Melchior Wańkowicz – Poland’s Master of the Written Word
The trial of Melchior Wańkowicz in 1960s communist Poland was a cause célèbre. Today, a new biography brings a captivating portrait of a “great humanist with a pragmatic approach to life, a prolific hard working writer, bon vivant, thinker, husband, father and most of all a fabulous reporter and storyteller.”
2013 Vol. 5 No. 3 — Fall / Books
As I Recall: Fireflies in the Night
Mark and Sharon Duffield remember the fireflies that illuminated their childhood; Monika Zofia Pauli’s illustrations illuminate their book.
2013 Vol. 5 No. 3 — Fall / Books
Good Blood, Bad Blood
Eugenics: misguided or malevolent? Vince Chesney reviews a book about a period in American history when human engineering was a seductive pseudoscience.
2013 Vol. 5 No. 3 — Fall / Books
Inhumanities: Nazi Interpretations of Western Culture
Before totalitarianism enforces its orders with boots and guns, it needs an intellectual framework. Stephen Drapaka reviews Inhumanities, a book that details the all too willing enthusiastic work of academics, journalists and other professionals in building this sordid enterprise.
2013 Vol. 5 No. 2 — Summer / Books
Second Homeland: Polish Refugees in India
Anuradaha Bhattacharjee turned a rejected newspaper story into a PhD thesis and a book. And what a story: orphaned children, a loving maharaja, an inspiring Gandhi, and the kindness of strangers.
2013 Vol. 5 No. 2 — Summer / Books
The Taste of Ashes: The Afterlife of Totalitarianism in Eastern Europe
“Can we make the past okay?” Michal Kasprzak weighs in on Marci Shore’s journey into the world of no innocent choices.
2013 Vol. 5 No. 2 — Summer / Books
Bogusław Schaeffer: An Anthology
A great artist in the tradition of Schulz, Wyspiański and Witkiewicz, Bogusław Schaeffer and his work are ubiquitous in Poland. And should be better known beyond. Magda Romanska is helping do that with her translation of three of his works, reviewed here by Alena Aniskiewicz.
2013 Vol. 5 No. 2 — Summer / Books
Polska Dotty
Here’s a writer you’ll immediately want to invite for dinner. Along with his charming father. And there, over great Polish food, you can tell him what you like, and don’t like, about his book.
2013 Vol. 5 No. 2 — Summer / Books
Vera Gran: The Accused
When Isaac Bashevis Singer said fate “is a trap we set for ourselves,” surely he wasn’t thinking of the Warsaw Ghetto. Two reviewers take issue with Agata Tuszynska’s biography of Vera Gran.
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