Sandy Mountain

• An extraordinary saga of three generations of Polish women set against the backdrop of twentieth-century history, from the era of building socialism to the capitalist Poland of recent years, told in enchanting and original language, definitely deserves attention. No wonder it won an award for translation; it is truly a joy to read every single sentence.

• A grim reality described with extremely vivid colors. I can hardly recall an author who can write about ordinary, everyday life so glamorously (but without pathos!) like Joanna Bator. If you can’t imagine how it was like living in a communist block of flats in Eastern Europe, this is a book for you. If you lived in such a setting and you're searching for memories, this book will bring them back to life like a zombie.

• I read it over the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, mesmerized by the texture of the language and the literary world and overcome by the memories of growing up in PRL--the Communist Poland. Joanna bator is a marvelous writer. She manages to capture the post-war world with precision and compassion, which does not come easily as the characters and the world they inhabit have been marred and wounded by the distortions of forced totalitarianism.

• All this desolation and gloom is wrapped in such magical language that suddenly and unnoticed, one feels right at home in a Polish prefabricated concrete block (which, the higher the floor, features ever-crookeder walls and increasingly misfit recesses for wall cupboards).

• This assessment not only carries the risk that readers deterred by the label 'women's fiction' will miss out on a fascinating, clever—and above all enlightening—novel; it is also simply false. Sandberg is first and foremost a family novel spanning three generations, and the author succeeds in weaving into this family history all the turmoil and catastrophes that Poland had to endure in the twentieth century.

1 / 5