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What Members Thought
Intense and lyrical, this is an unusual and compelling picture of 1943 Warsaw, but it is not a straightforward historical novel. Forget the English title (the Polish title translates as 'Beginning', a more enigmatic and ambiguous title that is more fitting). Look past the beautiful, but unblemished and luminous, picture on the book's cover. And ignore the blurb that suggests this is just the story of one Jewish woman who is passing as a Polish officer's wife, until she is recognised and imprison
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The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman is not only about her but also about the people around her. Poland is in the throws of WWII and everyone is affected; Henryczek Fichtelbaum and his little sister Joasia, Kujawski the tailor, Stuckler the SS man, Judge Romnicki, Dr. Adam Korda, Pawelek Krynski and a host of others. Each chapter focuses on a particular person. It is about WWII, being Polish, being Jewish and being German. It has hope, hate, death and life. “My God, she thought, here I was thinking that
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I savoured this book and I think I read it almost uninterrupted, which is probably why I enjoyed it and found it less disjointed than others did. I think I had expected it to be a succession of short stories (not sure why) and therefore the multiple viewpoints were not distracting. I also found it an enjoyable read because the descriptions were so believable, despite the subject matter. It is a gem of a book and I would recommend it to others
3.5 Stars
May 19, 2016
India Lavoyce
marked it as to-read
Jul 08, 2016
Anna Fennell
marked it as to-read
Apr 12, 2017
Jen
marked it as to-read
Apr 27, 2017
Bryan--The Bee’s Knees
marked it as boxall-list-only
May 14, 2017
PS
marked it as to-read
Jan 03, 2018
Sara
marked it as to-read
Nov 29, 2019
Lin
marked it as 1001-books-tr
Apr 06, 2020
Nocturnalux
marked it as to-read
Apr 24, 2020
Nicky
marked it as to-read
Dec 19, 2020
Shellie
marked it as to-read
Feb 08, 2021
Christoffer Jacobsen
marked it as to-read
Sep 04, 2021
Maria
marked it as to-read
