Wymazana granica. Śladami II Rzeczpospolitej

Wiped off the map by the joint German-Soviet aggression in September 1939, Interwar Poland never regained its former territorial shape. However, its 5,529 km border left a permanent mark not only on the European topography, but above all on the minds of the past and present inhabitants of the pre-war borderlands. Today the witnesses of the erased borders are eighty or ninety years old. Although time is merciless, some survivors – miraculously saved from the ravages of war and driven out of their homes in the former Eastern Borderlands – still live in the enclaves of their memories, while others might longingly remember Poland from the doorsteps of their wooden, Belarusian or Ukrainian shacks. Thanks to the author’s excellent reporting sense, the story features lively characters with identities shaped by the centuries-old tradition of the territories where languages and cultures met. In addition to venerable seniors, we also hear the voices of their successors who – though born in a different reality – still live in the shadow of the pre-war border. The local customs and architecture preserved the traces of that border. Terse details and concrete images, like the hands of an elderly woman smoothing out the oilcloth on a tabletop, or a strong local flavour conveyed through colourful setting description, stand out among many narrative techniques that turn Grzywaczewski’s reportage into a vivid and potent testimony. This is nonfiction at its best, giving the reader not only a sense of direct participation in the story, but also a chance to appreciate how it was constructed. Showing the mechanisms behind momentous historical events as struggles to move the border posts dividing barnyards produces very authentic images that stay etched in our memory.