Description
Set in a Polish village on the eve of World War II, this sweeping epic opens in a cemetery where families vie to outshine one another with the most striking tombs—an early sign of how memory, pride, and mortality shape communal life. Through the voice of Szymek Pietruszka, a seemingly ordinary countryman, the novel unfolds as a vast panorama of rural experience: his years as a soldier, a wedding official, and a caretaker become threads in a larger tapestry of family, love, and belonging. With a richly observant, story-driven style, the book turns personal recollection into a meditation on time, tradition, and the quiet labor of surviving change. At its heart, it explores how a peasant’s worldview—rooted in land, ritual, and community—measures history not by grand events alone, but by the lives that endure them.
Available Editions
paperback
National Geographic Books
Published Dec 30, 2010
ISBN: 9780982624623
Reviews
No ratings yet. Be the first!
No written reviews yet.
Details
First Published
1984
Language
pol
Content Warnings
No content warnings identified.