Polish-American novelist Krysia Jopek will talk about her novel Maps and Shadows at the Windsor Public Library on Oct. 20, 2011. The novel tells the story of one Polish family's struggle in Siberia during the Second World War. The program runs from 7 pm - 8:30 pm, and will be held at the Windsor Public Library, 323 Broad Street, Windsor, CT 06095, tel: 860-285-1918, www.windsorlibrary.com. The event is free and open to the public.
I posted a blog about this powerful novel earlier this year, and you can read that review by clicking here.
Chapter I
Our Orchards (Henryk)
Eastern Poland, 1930-1940
Some dates change the world irrevocably. What is done cannot be undone. No matter how well- or ill-conceived. One plane or two or ten piercing invisible lines, seeking enemy flesh.
A page of history that can never be torn out permanently. Things tend to catch up. Even when they are buried or ripped out. And it’s impossible for people to go on the same, though many pretend while sweeping the ashes under the expensive silk carpet. It depends where the lines are drawn. Maps and agreements that may or may not be honored, upheld. Memory, selective. Paper and flesh can be burned.
The history books my sister, Helcia, loved—would become unreal, unwritten. The Helcia that was light, flipped her honey hair and skipped with her books about lost cities, golden ash. Before the stone pages made her heavy. The then-unwritten pages that would unfold us. One group of people fighting another; the variables, teams and players switching, faking the others out.
