This volume presents two works by acclaimed Polish journalist Hanna Krall: "The Subtenant, " a semi-autobiographical novel, and "To Outwit God, " a remarkable interview with Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. "The Subtenant" explores the troubled and ever-shifting relationships between Poles and Jews, beginning with the author's concealment as a child during the Nazi years and ending in 1981 when martial law was declared in Poland. In "To Outwit God, " Edelman's words assault conventional assumptions about heroes and heroism, taking in his time not only in...

In twelve nonfiction tales, Hanna Krall reveals how the lives of World War II survivors are shaped in surprising ways by the twists and turns of historical events. A paralytic Jewish woman starts walking after her husband is suffocated by fellow Jews afraid that his coughing would reveal their hiding place to the Germans. A young American man refuses to let go of the ghost of his half brother who died in the Warsaw ghetto. He never knew the boy, yet he learns Polish to communicate with his dybbuk. A high ranking German officer conceives of a plan to kill Hitler after witnessing a mass...