A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True - by Brigid Pasulka (Paperback)

About the Book

From an original new voice in fiction comes this warm-hearted debut. Pasulka reimagines half a century of Polish history through the legacy of one couple's profound love affair.

Book Synopsis

On the eve of World War II, in a place called Half-Village, a young man nicknamed the Pigeon falls in love with a girl fabled for her angelic looks. To court Anielica Hetmanskáhe offers up his "golden hands" and transforms her family's modest hut into a beautiful home, thereby building his way into her heart. War arrives to cut short their courtship, delay their marriage, and send the young lovers far from home, to the promise of a new life in Kraków. Nearly fifty years later, their granddaughter, Beata, repeats their postwar journey, seeking a new life in her grandmother's fairy-tale city. But instead of the whispered prosperity of the New Poland, she discovers a Kraków caught between its future and its past. Whimsical, wise, beautiful, magical, and at times heartbreaking, A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True weaves together two remarkable stories, reimagining half a century of Polish history through the legacy of one unforgettable love affair.

From the Back Cover

"[A] whimsical debut." New York Times Book Review On the eve of World War II, a young man nicknamed the Pigeon falls in love with a girl fabled for her angelic looks, andbuilds his way into her heart bytransforming her family s modesthut into a beautiful home. But wararrives, cutting short their courtship and sending the young lovers off to thepromise of Krakow.
Nearly fifty years later, their granddaughterrepeats this journey, but instead of the whispered prosperity of the New Poland, she discovers a city caught between its future and its past. Magical, wise, and sometimes even heartbreaking, A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially Trueweaves together two remarkablestories, reimagining half a century of Polish history through the legacy of one unforgettable love affair.

"A gorgeous debut." Chicago Tribune

"Rings hauntingly, enchantingly, real." National Geographic Traveler"With a touch of Marina Lewycka and a dash of Captain Corelli s Mandolin, this is storytelling that gets under your skin and forces you to press copies into your best friends hands." Elle (UK) Brigid Pasulka, the descendant of Polish immigrants, first arrived in Krakow in the early nineties, with no contacts, no knowledge of the language, and only a vague idea of Polish culture. She quickly fell in love with the place, learned Polish, and decided to live there for one year. She teaches English at a Chicago high school. "

Review Quotes

Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Prize for Fiction "In this life-affirming novel of past and present, Brigid Pasulka twines the bright colors of fable with the subtler tones of disillusionment, survival, and rebirth--incarnating not only her characters and their lives, but Poland itself. Rarely does a novel succeed so well in evoking place and history, especially with a story as winning as this one. A marvelous debut."
--Nicole Mones, author of The Last Chinese Chef and Lost in Translation "Two lives, a grandmother's and her granddaughter's, are knit together in a finely wrought tapestry that illuminates an inheritance of a less familiar kind. At once haunting and exquisitely vibrant, Pasulka's original tale is a treasure, transcending history, time, and place." -- Martha McPhee, author of Gorgeous Lies "Pasulka's delightful debut braids together two tales of old and new Poland. . . . Pasulka creates a world that's magical despite the absence of magical happenings, and where Poland's history is bound up in one family's story." --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "Grand in scope, yet meticulous in detail, Brigid Pasulka's generous and affectionate novel finds universal truths in both its most-dramatic moments and its most-intimate observations. A compassionate, elegant, and moving debut." --Adam Langer, author of Crossing California "Funny and romantic like all the best true stories." -- Charlotte Mendelson, author of When We Were Bad --