Description

Book Synopsis

The Second World War. Poland. Our narrator has no intention of being a hero. He plans to survive this war, whatever it takes.

Meticulously he recounts his experiences: the slow unravelling of national events as well as uncomfortable personal encounters on the street, in the café, at the office, in his love affairs. He is intimate but reserved; conversational but careful; reflective but determined. As he becomes increasingly and chillingly alienated from other people, the reader is drawn into complicit acquiescence. We are forced to consider what it means to be heroic and how we ourselves would behave in the same circumstances.

Written in 1961, this is the masterpiece of one of the great Polish writers of the twentieth century.



Trade Review
provocative, troubling, awkward . . . a proper classic * The Sunday Times *

The Memoir of an AntiHero

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    A Paperback / softback by Kornel Filipowicz

    £9.25

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      Book details

      Publisher Penguin Random House Group
      Imprint Penguin Classics
      Published 1 October 2020
      ISBN-13 9780241351604
      978-0241351604
      ISBN-10 024135160X

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      The Second World War. Poland. Our narrator has no intention of being a hero. He plans to survive this war, whatever it takes.

      Meticulously he recounts his experiences: the slow unravelling of national events as well as uncomfortable personal encounters on the street, in the café, at the office, in his love affairs. He is intimate but reserved; conversational but careful; reflective but determined. As he becomes increasingly and chillingly alienated from other people, the reader is drawn into complicit acquiescence. We are forced to consider what it means to be heroic and how we ourselves would behave in the same circumstances.

      Written in 1961, this is the masterpiece of one of the great Polish writers of the twentieth century.



      Trade Review
      provocative, troubling, awkward . . . a proper classic * The Sunday Times *

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