49 pages • 1 hour read
Brigid PasulkaA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Content Warning: This section of the guide describes the novel’s treatment of antisemitism, rape, alcohol addiction, and wartime violence.
This summary section includes Chapter 1: “A Faraway Land,” Chapter 2: “Golden Hands,” Chapter 3: “The Non-Courtship,” and Chapter 4: “The Seven Good Years of Pani Bożena.”
In a small mountain village in southwestern Poland in 1939, a young man makes a momentous decision. Nicknamed “the Pigeon,” he wants to marry the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. She’s Anielica Hetmański, and the Pigeon has never spoken to her before. Because of rural prudishness regarding courtship, he knows that he must find a roundabout way to gain her notice. The Pigeon goes to the Hetmański residence and offers to do carpentry work for free to renovate the property. Pan (Mr.) Hetmański shrewdly guesses the Pigeon’s ulterior motives but consents to the construction project. If the Pigeon lasts more than a week, he might make a good son-in-law.
The timeline skips forward 50 years, and the book’s narrator now begins to talk about herself. Her name is Beata, and she’s the 22-year-old granddaughter of the Pigeon and Anielica. She was raised by Anielica, whom she called Nela, because her mother (Ania) died when she was six, and her abusive father, who also had an alcohol addiction, left soon afterward.
Art
View Collection
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
Coming-of-Age Journeys
View Collection
Community
View Collection
Family
View Collection
Fate
View Collection
Fear
View Collection
Forgiveness
View Collection
Good & Evil
View Collection
Guilt
View Collection
Memorial Day Reads
View Collection
Memory
View Collection
Military Reads
View Collection
Nation & Nationalism
View Collection
Romance
View Collection
Safety & Danger
View Collection
The Future
View Collection
The Past
View Collection
Truth & Lies
View Collection
War
View Collection
World War II
View Collection