Description
Book SynopsisAt the height of the Nazi extermination campaign in the Warsaw Ghetto, a young Jewish woman, Irena, seeks the protection of her former lover, a young architect, Jan Malecki. By taking her in, he puts his own life and the safety of his family at risk.
Trade Review“Creates in one slim volume a vivid world peopled by believable and sympathetic characters whose lives depict with gripping accuracy an entire historical era.... Urgently recommended to all readers with an interest in world history.”
“A tight, dramatic novel.... If its immediacy proved off-putting to contemporary readers, today that urgency is its greatest strength.”
“Andrzejewski here turns an unsparing eye on the ways in which professed Christians dealt with—or failed to address—the annihilation of their Jewish compatriots.... The world Andrzejewski conjures here may be relentlessly grim, but his tale is, as always, compelling.”
“The relentless conflicts between and within these characters transform what appears to be a simple issue of national neglect into a hauntingly real drama of agonizing personal decisions and personal failures.”
“With the first English edition of Holy Week— a tightly wound story that can be devoured in one long sitting — we can at last discover a little-known work from one of Poland's leading 20th century novelists.... Holy Week— ably translated by a team of (University of Pittsburgh) students under the guidance of Oscar Swan — has an immediacy and verisimilitude impossible for someone not on the scene.”
“The understated quality of this nominally realistic yet strangely allegorical short novel contributes to Holy Week’s mesmerizing power.”
