Literature

The Last Mazurka is a curious little book that defies pigeonholing and perhaps that confusion is the book's best feature. At the heart of the book it is the tale of a grandson's search for his aristocratic family and to understand what happened to the family in pre and post World War II Poland.

A central theme of the book is mismatched people and marriages that should have never happened.

Read more: The Last Mazurka: A Family's Tale of War, Passion, and Loss - Book Review

Garden of Venus blends historical fact and fiction. The story of Sophie Glavani Celice, primo voto de Witt, secundo voto Countess Potocka is one of these fascinating stories from Eastern Europe for years cut off from the West by the Iron Curtain. In Poland, Sophie's biography became popular in 1970s, when a well-known Polish historian, Jerzy Łojek's, published his Dzieje pięknej Bitynki [The story of a beautiful Bythinienne] a historical account of the rise of la Belle Phanariote in the courts of Europe.

Read more: The Story of Countess Potocka in Garden of Venus

I read Eva Stachniak's novel Necessary Lies with a great interest. This book attracts attention almost immediately, it is interestingly written and it also talk about important issues. I also could identify with the main character of the story since their life stories were similar to mine.

Read more: Eva Stachniak's Necessary Lies - Collision of Cultures