Product Description

Panoramic and lush, Push Not The River is the romantic epic of one young countess's coming of age during the upheaval of eighteenth century Poland - a time of heartache and turmoil as the country is torn apart by neighbouring countries and divided loyalties. At seventeen, Lady Anna Maria Berezowska loses her family and must leave the only home she have ever know. With Catherine's Russian armies streaming in to take their spoils, Anna is quickly thrust into a world of love and hate, patriotism and treason, life and death.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1231987 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Review
"Martin''s novel transports the reader 200 years into Poland''s glorious past....Push Not the River sings of a people''s pride..." -- Jan Lorys, director of the Polish Museum of America

Harvard University Quarterly, Frances Drwal
"Martin has written a book that is completely absorbing...you will have difficulty putting it aside."

Polish American Journal, Florence Clowes
"A compelling read of love, patriotism, treachery, and revenge, it will leave the reader wanting more. Highly recommended."

Customer Reviews

The LIBRARY JOURNAL Review
“At the end of the 18th century, the Polish nobility watched nervously as French peasants toppled their king. Some noble advocated reforms extending rights to the lower classes, while others insisted on maintaining absolute power even though it entailed aligning themselves with Catherine Empress of Russia. Against this tumultuous background, Anna Maria Berezowska faces her own turmoil. Left an orphan at 17, she moves to her aunt and uncle’s estate and meets Jan Stelnicki, a count who supports reform. Unfortunately their mutual attraction is resented by Anna’s cousin, Zofia, who wants Jan for herself. Anna’s life is further complicated when she is forced into marriage with a man interested only in her fortune.

Even though misunderstanding and coincidences keep Anna and Jan apart, their ultimate union is as certain as Poland’s demise. Based on an actual 18th century diary, the narrative . . . holds readers because of the cast of well-developed characters and the need to see how Anna and her young son will survive the latest crisis.

While public library patrons of Polish ancestry may feel a special affinity for this first novel, other historical [fiction] fans will enjoy it as well.”

HISTORY COMES ALIVE
Every country has a history, but few countries suffered the repeated tragedies of Poland. Within this country's class struggle, James Conroyd Martin puts a personal face on the events of the time by introducing the reader to the Berezowska family. In particular, two cousins, Anna and Zophia, battle each other and the country's system of nobility to an end which is both bitter and hopeful. Mr. Martin gleaned his story from the reading and translating of a true-life diary that is almost 200 years old. Written by a woman who lived through the trials of Poland during its many partitions, PUSH NOT THE RIVER fictionalizes her family's experiences around the true historical occupations and partitions of the land. Along with the fictional characters, the reader is introduced to some of Poland's greatest heroes and most breath-taking of landscapes. The River Vistula seems to work as a beautiful metaphor in illustrating all that divided the sides during that period of time in Poland. Open the first page of this book, and begin to know the Berezowska cousins and their country. It is well worth the effort.

A Polish "Gone With the Wind"
I found Jim Martin's historical novel a fascinating and well balanced depiction of life in Poland during the later part of the eighteenth-century. The ability of the author to pull the reader along with vivid descriptives, based on a diary of a Polish Countess, gives the reader a realistic sense of what Poland lived through in attempting to establish Europe's first democracy.

A recent reviewer cited "Push Not the River" as Poland's "Gone With the Wind"... a descriptive I would heartily concur. Highly recommended.