Kinderszenen

An old man—poet playwright essayist and scholar—siftsthrough the broken fragments of his memory as he recounts what it was like togrow up in Warsaw during the German occupation of World War II. The result is Kinderszenena searing and controversial memoir by a major post-war Polish writer that hasevoked both debate and praise now translated into English for the first time. . The book’s title comes from the suite of piano pieces byRobert Schumann which evoke the innocence and joy of childhood—thus providing awrenching counterpoint to the violence destruction and madness thatcharacterize Jaros?aw Marek Rymkiewicz’s coming of age..  . While the scenes of his youth are depicted in vivid detailfrom his boyish encounters with cats horses and turtles up to the shockingbrutality of murder and mayhem witnessed at first hand what really sets Kinderszenenapart is its extended meditation on the nature of war oppression andfanatical nationalism and the possibility—however doomed it may seem—of humanresistance to those forces. Here is an enduring testimony that remains starklyrelevant to our own time.