{"product_id":"memories-of-starobielsk-isbn-9781681374864","title":"Memories of Starobielsk","description":"\u003cb\u003eVivid accounts of life in a Soviet prison camp by the author of \u003ci\u003eInhuman Land\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInterned with thousands of Polish officers in the Soviet prisoner-of-war camp at Starobielsk in September 1939, Józef Czapski was one of a very small number to survive the massacre in the forest of Katyń in April 1940. \u003ci\u003eMemories of Starobielsk \u003c\/i\u003eportrays these doomed men, some with the detail of a finished portrait, others in vivid sketches that mingle intimacy with respect, as Czapski describes their struggle to remain human under hopeless circumstances. Essays on art, history, and literature complement the memoir, showing Czapski’s lifelong engagement with Russian culture. The short pieces on painting that he wrote while on a train traveling from Moscow to the Second Polish Army’s strategic base in Central Asia stand among his most lyrical and insightful reflections on art.“What distinguishes \u003ci\u003eMemories of Starobielsk\u003c\/i\u003e and deepens our understanding of the events Czapski lived through is the vision he imparts of a Europe that the Soviets (and the Nazis) had attempted to destroy. . . . \u003ci\u003eMemories of Starobielsk\u003c\/i\u003e shows the victims not as soldiers but as doctors, professors, engineers, writers, translators—people of education and character, products of a civilization that Stalinism could not accommodate.” —Philip Ó. Ceallaigh, \u003ci\u003eThe Los Angeles Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Józef Czapski was a beautiful human being, courageous, noble but also hardworking; occasionally a soldier, journalist, diarist, always writing, drawing, always with a sketchbook in hand, always ready to help friends and strangers. In his person high intelligence and remarkable artistic talent met with an active, almost naive goodness—a rather rare combination, as we know” —Adam Zagajewski\u003cb\u003eJózef Czapski\u003c\/b\u003e (1896–1993) was a writer and artist, as well as an officer in the Polish army. NYRB Classics publishes his work of reportage about the Katyn Massacre, \u003ci\u003eInhuman Land\u003c\/i\u003e, and a collection of his lectures on Proust during his time as a prisoner of war in a Soviet prison camp, \u003ci\u003eLost Time\u003c\/i\u003e. New York Review Books also publishes Eric Karpeles’s biography of Czapski, \u003ci\u003eAlmost Nothing\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlissa Valles\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of the poetry collection \u003ci\u003eHospitium\u003c\/i\u003e. Her translations include Zbigniew Herbert’s \u003ci\u003eCollected Poems\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eCollected Prose\u003c\/i\u003e and Ryszard Krynicki’s \u003ci\u003eOur Life Grows\u003c\/i\u003e (NYRB Poets). She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIrena Grudzińska Gross\u003c\/b\u003e’s books include \u003ci\u003eCzesław Miłosz and Joseph Brodsky: Fellowship of Poets\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Scar of Revolution: Tocqueville, Custine, and the Romantic Imagination\u003c\/i\u003e. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300401107173,"sku":"NP9781681374864","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781681374864.jpg?v=1767732548","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/memories-of-starobielsk-isbn-9781681374864","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}