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...