On 1 August 1944 15-year-old Andrew Boroweic, a volunteer in the Resistance, lobbed a grenade at German soldiers patrolling in Warsaw - and began his war. This account of the 63-day Warsaw Uprising - written in a POW camp soon after - tells of Boroweic's brutal rite of passage from child to veteran soldier in one of the bloodiest and most ruthless episodes of the Second World War.
Andrew Borowiec was born at Lodz in Poland in 1928. At fifteen he joined the Home Army, the main Polish resistance during the Second World War, and fought in the ill-fated Warsaw Uprising. After the war he left Poland and attended Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. He lives in Cyprus with his English wife, Juliet.
This is a surprisingly subtle, well observed autobiography,
beautifully paced...Borowiec's war is learning experience and part
of the charm of the book is learning with him...All this is
described with self effacing gusto.
*The Times*
A timely, angry, terribly moving and drily amusing account of an
especially dark period in Poland's often tragic history
*Telegraph*
This account of the Warsaw Uprising is both harrowing and full of
human and even humorous touches . . . The result is an important
addition to our understanding of what was happening in Poland
during the war years
*The Tablet*
In this packed, wise memoir, Borowiec describes a journey that is
nothing less than an odyssey through the most harrowing of
circumstances. Given the fate of many of his fellow Poles, that
there was a happy ending for Borowiec is remarkable
*The National*
Borowiec is at his best when describing his own experiences - his
excitement at throwing his first grenade; crawling through the
sewers to move from one sector to another; and the surreal moments
when normal life seemed to be continuing amid the carnage . . .
Most striking, perhaps, amid all the horror, is just how exciting
he found it all
*Literary Review*
A story of defiance, bravery and survival. Warsaw Boy is a
real-life Boy's Adventure Story - Eat your heart out, Indiana
Jones
*Shirley Conran*
A highly readable and engaging first-hand account of the
tribulations of a country for which Britain went to war in 1939,
and about which most of us still know far too little
*Roger Moorhouse, author of 'The Devils’ Alliance: Hitler’s Pact
with Stalin'*
An engaging memoir of wartime childhood . . . It is the fresh,
often humerous voice of Borowiec that stands out throughout. Warsaw
Boy is valuable for the story it tells of what a boy made of the
war and what the war made of him
*TLS*
A uniquely personal and harrowing description of one of the most
tragic events in the country's twentieth century history
*Cyprus Mail*
Hugely engaging. For all the horrors that Borowiec describes, his
is an affectionate, wryly amusing account puntuated by episodes of
warmth and humanity. Excellent
*Financial Times*
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