Showing results by narrator "Beata Poźniak" in All Categories

It is 1943, and for four years, 16-year-old Stefania has been working for the Diamant family in their grocery store in Przemsyl, Poland, singing her way into their lives and hearts. She has even made a promise to one of their sons, Izio - a betrothal they must keep secret since she is Catholic and the Diamants are Jewish. 

It is 1943 and 16-year-old Stefania Podgórska has been working for the Diamant family in their grocery store in Przemsyl, Poland, for four years. She has even made a promise to one of their sons, Izio - an engagement they must keep secret since she is Catholic and the Diamants are Jewish. But everything changes when the German army invades Przemsyl. The Diamants are forced into the ghetto and Stefania is alone in an occupied city, the only one left to care for her six-year-old sister. And then comes the knock at the door. 

When Vavara, a young orphaned Polish girl, is brought to serve at Empress Elizabeth's glittering, dangerous court in St Petersburg, she is schooled by the Chancellor himself in skills from lock-picking to love-making, learning above all else to stay silent - and listen. Soon, she is Elizabeth's 'tongue' - her secret eyes and ears. Then Sophie, a vulnerable young princess, arrives from Prussia as a prospective bride for Elizabeth's heir.

Since she was a pup, Zima has been taught to fear humans - especially witches - but when her family is threatened, she has no choice but to seek help from the witch Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga never does magic for free, but it just so happens that she needs a wolf's keen nose for a secret plan she's brewing... Before Zima knows what's happening, the witch has cast a switching spell and run off into the woods, while Zima is left behind in Baba Yaga's hut - and Baba Yaga's body!

The Tsar of Love and Techno begins in 1930s Leningrad, where a failed portrait artist employed by Soviet censors must erase political dissenters from official images and artworks. One day he receives an antique painting of a dacha inside a box of images due to be altered. The mystery behind this painting threads together the stories that follow, which take us through a century and introduce a cast of characters including a Siberian beauty queen and many others.

In A Libretto for the Desert, Sona Van's subject is the Armenian genocide, also known as the Great Catastrophe. Van's parents and grandparents were driven into exile due to this horrific event. Her poems reflect a personal connection to this history as well as the universality of loss, persecution, and intolerance.

This collection of Sona Van’s poems is a tribute to the victims of genocide and war. With extraordinary feminine sensitivity, the poet looks at the world in all its striking contrasts, constantly probing the depths of her consciousness with new modes of expression. The collection consists of ephemeral poems characterized by dramatic encounters with nothingness in which an uncanny ability to capture extreme situations prevails. Sona Van’s poetry represents the truest testimony of historical experience and the reality in which it still lives.  

Weaving together the voices of three generations of women - Rita, her daughter, Leslie, and her granddaughter, Mikaela - the memoir provides powerful and inspiring evidence of the resilience of the human spirit, relevant to every culture in every corner of the world. Unimaginably devastating and incredibly uplifting, this firsthand account of survival and healing offers a poignant message of hope in our own uncertain times.