In the Memory of the Forest: A Novel - Softcover

Powers, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 014027281X ISBN 13: 9780140272819

Publisher: Penguin, 1998

Synopsis

When the body of Tomek Powierza, a young distillery worker, is found in the forest outside Jadowia, Leszek, a young farmer, seeking to expand his family's holdings, decides to uncover the truth surrounding the death. Meanwhile, Communism has receded from Europe; and Poland, like other countries, is struggling to rebuild its economy and society. Against this backdrop of a culture in transition Leszek becomes an amateur sleuth, gathering clues. His investigation leads him to confront the former state apparatchiks and the Church's pious and impotent priests. A series of strange thefts - stones from the foundations of old houses - may or may not be connected to Tomek's murder. As Leszek moves closer to the truth he realizes that larger forces - ancient prejudices and blood feuds - are ultimately at the root of this mystery. He recognizes, too, that the answer to the puzzle will be found in the dark woods that sprawl beyond the town, where the past and the present come together in the novel's surprising and powerful climax.

About this title

Review:

Even in the days after the collapse of Communism, the Poland of Charles Powers' novel is an "old country in an old Europe", a place that harbours the stories and secrets of a complex, tortured history. When a young farmer named Leszek starts looking into the unexplained murder of a childhood friend in his small hometown of Jadowia, he is led into a dark terrain where difficult truths of war crimes committed by his own family start to surface. It's a complex, literary detective story, rendered in precise, jewel- like prose. Powers, who died in 1996, knows whereof he speaks: a journalist for the Los Angeles Times for more than twenty years, he served as the paper's Eastern European bureau chief from 1986-1991.

From the Back Cover:

Set in a small Polish village, In the Memory of the Forest revolves around the aftermath of a violent death in the hushed woods beyond the town. As events unfold and the dark, brooding forest yields history's footsteps, one man's tireless search for the truth forces the community to confront long-suppressed memories - of evil and corruption dating back to the communist era and beyond to the German occupation during the war.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 014027281X
• ISBN 13: 9780140272819
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384