This intimate, affectionate portrait of Pope John Paul II by his longtime secretary and confidant reveals fascinating new details about the opinions, hopes, fears, and dramatic life of this public man.
Despite the hagiographical tone, one thing is clear – John Paul was a formidable world figure in the latter half of the 20th century, and he never allowed his position to affect his ability to be a good friend. – Publishers Weekly

New York Daily News journalist Erin Einhorn travels to meet the Polish family that saved her Jewish mother from the Holocaust. But instead of a joyful reunion, she unearths a dispute that forces her to navigate the difficult terrain between memory and truth, as she explores the world of modern Polish-Jewish relations.

Excellent… A poignant – and scientifically lucid – portrait – The New York Times Book Review

Shortlisted for the NIKE Award, Poland’s highest literary prize
Winner of 2003 Koret Jewish Book Award in Fiction

Wojciech Jagielski has already achieved recognition for his reporting from the most inflamed points on our globe. [This latest work] will only confirm his reputation. – Ryszard Kapuscinski

Kapucinski saw more, and more clearly, than nearly any writer one can think to name. Few have written more beautifully of unspeakable things. Few have had his courage, almost none his talent. His books changed the way many of us think about nonfiction... When the last page of this book is turned, note how much smaller and colder the world now seems with Kapuscinski gone. – Tom Bissell, New York Times Book Review

Looking at the concept of the Other through the lens of his own encounters in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and considering its formative significance for his work, Kapuscinski traces how the West has understood the Other from classical times to colonialism, from the age of enlightenment to the postmodern global village.

In 1940, the historian Emanuel Ringelblum established a clandestine organization in occupied Warsaw to study and document all facets of Jewish life in wartime Poland and to compile an archive that would preserve its history for posterity. The book tells the gripping story of a determination to use historical scholarship and the collection of documents to resist Nazi oppression. A stunning revelation of the enduring spirit of the decimated residents of the Warsaw Ghetto. – Rita Kohn, NUVO Weekly, August 8, 2007

It is best through personal stories that we can grasp the world of our fathers which the Nazis destroyed. Mayer Kirshenblatt has a unique gift for evocation of the past in his simple and beautiful paintings. Each one tells a story. Together they make up a world. – Jan T. Gross, author of Neighbors: A joyous and deeply satisfying immersion in the lost world of prewar Poland Jewry. – Ann Kirschner, author of Sala's Gift: My Mother's Holocaust Story