`I had only one eye, I was hungry and cold, yet I wanted to live... so that I could tell it all just as I've told you.' - From Zofia Nalkowska's Medallions (1947). Witness to two world wars and Poland's struggle for independence, Zofia Nalkowska's commitment to recording all is her gift to European literature. Her own story of love affairs, family loyalty and survival is remarkable in itself. Yet, her determination to record others' truth, however painful, ties her fate to a nation whose battle for identity is both brutal and romantic. Her most renowned work, Medallions, a collection...