After already reading a book about the second World War, I wasn’t up to another one. Especially since this one focuses on Jews as well but The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman is so great that I forgot all my complaints and got absorbed into the novel.
As such you could say that the book is a collection of short stories but they are loosely linked as the same characters re-occur. The woman of the title is a Jew who has, through illegal ways, becomes a Polish citizen. Her lover is a young man who tries to understand this crazy situation, his friend is a spoilt young man who tries to escape the ghetto and so.
Not only does Szczypiorski speak about the present and the past, he also mentions the future destinations of his characters obviously unbeknownst to them. It is this factor which made me read this book compulsively as most of the themes here , doubt, fear, bravery have been tackled before in other holocaust novels. Incidentally the translation is great and flowing and that helped my enjoyment of the book.
A cult classic!
The Bobsphere 