Description
‘All at once she thought that a life is only that which has passed. There is no life other than memory’
In the Nazi-occupied Warsaw of 1943, Irma Seidenman, a young Jewish widow, possesses two attributes that can spell the difference between life and death: blue eyes and blond hair.
Paired with false papers, she passes as the wife of a Polish officer, until one day an informer spots her on the street.
At times a dark lament, at others a sly and sardonic thriller, The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman is the story of the thirty-six hours that follow Irma’s arrest and the events that lead to her dramatic rescue.
‘Magnificent. Complex, wise, unsentimental and very moving’ – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
‘Dense, lyrical and deeply unsettling’ – New York Times
‘A fine balance between poetic tenderness and an unflinching account of the brutal realities of the day’ – Guardian
‘Extraordinarily original’ – Los Angeles Times
‘The prose is stunning, thanks to a masterful translation by Klara Glowczewska, and the characters are so fully fleshed that they seem to step off the page’ – NPR
‘Grips the reader with the power of a high-class thriller’ – Frankfurter Rundschau
