Push Not the River - Hardcover

James Conroyd Martin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312311508 ISBN 13: 9780312311506

Publisher: St Martin's Press, 2003

Synopsis

A tale based on a real eighteenth-century diary follows the coming of age of Countess Anna Maria Berezowska as she witnesses the rise and fall of the Third of May Constitution in Poland, loses her parents, and falls in love with a democratic reformer.

About this title

Review:

"A Polish GONE WITH THE WIND, cover[ing] invading armies and women left behind to fend for themselves." -- Historical Novels Review, Teresa Basinski Eckford

"A compelling read of love, patriotism, treachery, and revenge, it will leave the reader wanting more. Highly recommended." -- Polish American Journal, Florence Clowes

"Martin has written a book that is completely absorbing...you will have difficulty putting it aside." -- Harvard University Quarterly, Frances Drwal

"Mr. Martin has written the life story of a well-born woman with vivid prose and haunting imagery." -- Sophie Hodorowitz Knab, author

From the Author:

The cornerstone of this novel is the unpublished diary of Countess Anna Maria Berezowska. The countess began keeping a diary when her personal world began to disinegrate and writing became for her a great therapy. She sometimes read and copied into her own diary the colorful entries from her cousin Zofia's diary. It was Zofia's often shocking content that most likely accounted for subsequent generations' withholding the document from the public. For some decades it was even sealed in wax and hidden away. Amazingly, the years of the countess' personal crises coincided with some of the most important years in all of Polish history: the Third of May Constitution years. It is fortunate that such a remarkable private view--and a woman's view--of those perilous years has survived.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0312311508
• ISBN 13: 9780312311506
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432