The Many Lives of Michał K.

Set against Polish Jews' struggle to avoid annihilation during World War II, this novel is a story of survival, self-empowerment, and armed Jewish resistance in the margins of the War—of family, young love, religious and national identity, and, in the aftermath of Soviet liberation, of the intrigue of Cold War-war politics, emigration to the New World, and the pursuit of revenge.

In the closing days of August 1939, 14-year-old Michał Klein, his parents, and his sister board a train heading east, abandoning their comfortable life to flee the impending conflict with Germany. For the young Jewish teenager, forced to live under the murderous German occupation of his Polish homeland, this was the beginning of a long and difficult journey. He first lives with his family at his aunt and uncle's house in Lublin, then goes into hiding with his sister in the countryside, on a farm near Lublin. When the Nazis began seriously exterminating the Jews, he joins Jewish partisans in the Polish forests, fighting the Nazis and protecting other Jews.

Michał gradually becomes a hardened killer, seeking retribution to avenge the annihilation of his people. Along the way he falls in love with a leader in the socialist wing of the Polish Resistance, and this love affair shapes the rest of his life. Michał vows to settle scores with former Nazis and Polish collaborators as he searches for his sister in the chaos of the postwar migrations. His journey takes him through the government halls of the New Poland, then to DP camps in Germany, and finally, to Mexico and the United States.