This canonical work of Polish reportage is a terse, unexpected human lesson born of an occupation-era love story. Based on a true story, the raw interplay of history and fictionalization spans the Warsaw Ghetto, the war-torn countryside, and the nightmare of Auschwitz.

This is the book’s first US publication.

Hanna Krall was born in 1935 in Poland and survived the Holocaust by hiding in a cupboard. She has received numerous Polish and international awards, such as the Polish PEN Club Prize and the German Wurth Preis for European Literature 2012, and has been translated into seventeen languages.