My Century

(Paperback, Main)

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Description

The great Polish poet Aleksander Wat's memoirs provide a powerful and moving account of life in Eastern Europe in a terrible twentieth century. Based on interviews with Nobel Prizewinner Czeslaw Milosz, My Century describes a vanished world of artistic innovation and political rebellion. But the heart of the book-which makes it a spiritual testimony comparable to Bonhoeffer's Letters from Prison- is Wat's encounter with evil in the Soviet camps which brought about his subsequent religious conversion.

Reviews

"It would be impossible for me to overstate my admiration for this book. It is a magnificent achievement, one of the most moving and powerful books I have ever read."

Author Bio

Aleksander Wat (1900-1967) was a major figure in the Polish avant-garde that flourished between the First and Second World Wars. In 1939 Wat and his wife and son fled eastward to escape the invading Nazi army, only to be arrested by Soviet authorities: for nearly two years Wat remained in jail, while his family was sent into exhile in Kazakhstan. After the war, Wat returned to Poland, where his poetry was at first celebrated but soon banned. He died in exile in France. Czeslaw Milosz is a poet, essayist and author of the memoir To Begin Where I Am. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980.