Announcing “The Life Of Marek Zaczek Volume I: Under the Wings of Eagles”
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Those of you who have followed my blog postings may recognize some elements from my latest novel’s cover, “The Life of Marek Zaczek Volume I: Under the Wings of Eagles”. I tend to blog about topics I am currently researching. So the images on the cover of Casimir Pulaski, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the Winged Hussar Armor (courtesy of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum of London), and even the Benedictine Monastery at Tyniec near Krakow may seem familiar.
So what is the storyline? It begins with the birth of Marek Zaczek (what else?) to a peasant mother on the folwark (estate) of a Szlachta Duke in 1772. The Duke controls the sprawling land holdings and manages the Salt Mines of Wieliczka. Marek’s mother serves the Duke’s desires in his opulent manor house while his father toils in the mines below. But everything is not always as it appears…
The King of Poland is suspected of being a puppet of Russia (Sound familiar?). In fact, the monarch is an ex-lover of Catherine the Great. The Polish nobles, at least many of them, have confederated at the south-eastern town of Bar to fight both the Russian interference in their own country’s governance, as well as the indecisive nature of their own king. A civil war rages for four years before Russia’s overpowering dominance isolates the outgunned rebels in few monasteries (including the cliffside abbey at Tyniec).
Marek is born, in fact, on the very day that the empires of Austria, Russia and Prussia sign the accord to partition large tracts of borderlands from Poland. The Duke is forced to navigate the rapidly changing political landscape, as his holdings are transferred from Poland to Maria Theresa’s Austria in the region known as Galicia.
Over the 25 year’s covered in this novel (1772-1797), not only do the three Partitions of Poland take place, but also the American War for Independence, The French Revolution (including the Reign of Terror), The War in Defense of Poland’s 3 May 1991 Constitution, and the Kosciusko Uprising of 1794. It is amazing how interconnected all these events were, and all come to have great bearing on Marek’s journey to adulthood.
The Life of Marek Zaczek Vol. I is now available on Amazon as well as Barnes and Noble in paperback and dust-jacketed hardbacks. It will also be available soon on Kindle. Of course, autographed copies are available, as always, on my website
The Books of David Trawinski at DavidTrawinski.com.
I hope you’ll enjoy Marek’s and his mother Magda’s tale, and come along for the ride.
