This very engaging and traumatic book is about the people from a country invaded, defeated, and occupied in WWII--Poland. Silvana and Janusz are young before the war, just starting out in their marriage, having a child when Hitler starts to eye Poland as his first invasion. The book focuses largely on what happens after the war, but it flashes back to the things that happened in the midst of it all. Those are the things that interfere with being able to go into the future with a clear and optimistic conscience.
Janusz left Poland early on--it was clear that Poland was falling and he traveled with other Polish soldiers to France, which also fell, and then he made his way to England where he established himself after the war as well and started to look for Silvana and their son, Aurek. Find them he does, but they are like prisoners kept in the basement without food for years on end. They have lived in the woods in Poland for what is essentially Aurek's whole life, and they do not adjust immediately to the safety of England.
But that is not the only problem--both Janusz and Silvana have big secrets that they are not sharing with each other. These secrets are very typical of protracted and brutal wars, but not talking about it makes the transition back to family life impossible. It is a well constructed story, well written, and well worth the time to read it.
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