Chasing the King of Hearts by Hanna Krall

November 20, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – print. Translated from the Polish by Philip Boehm. Peirene Press, 2013. Originally published 2006. 176 pgs. Purchased. The title of this novella comes from the actions of the story’s main character, Izolda Regenberg, who is singularity driven to chase down her “King of Hearts”, her husband, Shayek. As the situation in the Warsaw ghetto grew more desperate, Izolda hatched a plan for herself, Shayek, and his parents and sister to hide in Polish homes outside the ghetto. Only […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Europe, Fiction, Genocide, Holocaust, Peirene Press, Poland, Polish, Translated • Tags: Hanna Krall, Philip Boehm

I Remember Nothing More by Adina Blady Szwajger

February 21, 2011 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Translated from the Polish by Tasja Darowska and Danusia Stok. Touchstone, 1990. Originally published 1988. 184 pgs. Received from PaperBackSwap. Subtitled “A Doctor’s Powerfully Moving Memoir of Her Struggle to Save the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto”, Szwajger’s memoir is of her time working as the equivalent of a physician’s assistant in the Jewish Children’s Hospital  in the Warsaw Ghetto. Szwajger watched terrible atrocities such as starving children dying and participated in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising all […]

Categories: 2011 Reads, Europe, Genocide, Holocaust, Nonfiction, Polish, Textbook, Translated • Tags: Adina Blady Szwajger