A remarkable account of a remarkable nation
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This epic is a phenomenal account of a remarkable nation and a remarkable people.
It documents the resilience of the Polish people, in the face of experiencing their nation being crushed by invaders and more powerful neighbors, so many times.
It begins in 1981, at the time that Poland lay under the heel of Communist tyranny, as a puppet of that Evil Empire, the Soviet Union, introducing us to the brave Polish farmers leader, Janko Buk, who out of love of his people, prepares to take on the might of the cruel Marxist-Leninist monolith.
We are then taken back to AD 1204, to discover how Poland bravely stood against the ravages of the savage Mongol and Tartar hordes sweeping through Europe from the East.
Michener then documents the repeated rape of Poland through history, by the Germans from the West and the Swedes from the North, as well as the brave role played by the Polish in beating back the Islamic Ottoman invasion of Europe from the south. (Is Europe once more faced by an Islamic invasion in the 21st century?).
Through the various partitions of that country, whereby Austria, Prussia/Germany and Russia, divided that nation amongst themselves, like a cake.
Finally in the 20th Century, Poland again re-emerged free in 1918, but only for a short while, and was to experience being at the receiving end of the two cruellest and most vicious movements in history, Communism and Nazism (may both be erased forever!)
Through this sage we get to know many amazing men and women, representing a most resilient nation.
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an epic novel about Poland
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I read this book " cover to cover" after buying it at Warsaw Airpot. It covers the history of Poland throught the lives of successive generations of 3 families, the aristocatic Lubonskis, the Bukowski's (gentry) and the peasant Buk clans. The book spans era's from the Mongol invasions through to the Solidarity movement in the 1980's. The book is a great epic, describing Poland throughout the ages. I am maried to a Pole, and Micheners stories reinforced my view of the Polish people, albeit rather simplistically. A good book to get an overview of Poland and its history.
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