The Book

'Goodbye Polsko' intertwines the histories of postwar Britain and Poland as seen through the lives of one family - ordinary people whose world has been turned upside down by accidents of fate and war. The story begins in 1964 where the elderly grandmother has become homesick and weary of living with her daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren in a suburban English house. She returns to Poland but the privations of life under the Communists and events from her past which she has attempted to keep hidden, make her stay less than happy.

Her daughter, meanwhile, has her own fears to contend with as wartime memories and scenes from the past threaten to overwhelm her. The three children of the next generation, growning up in the England of the 1960s, are alternately repelled and attracted to their Polish roots, while they struggle to reconcile their two identities. The shocking climax to the novel will leave you transfixed.

If you have lived in Britain or are thinking about doing so, this book will give you a unique insight into the Anglo-Polish story, as seen through the eyes of the generation who settled immediately after the Second World War. It will enhance your understanding of the new close relationship that is now being forged between the two countries.