Reading List (compiled by John Radzilowski)
Sikorski, Radek: Full Circle -- A Homecoming to Free Poland

Sikorski, Radek: Full Circle -- A Homecoming to Free Poland
New York, Simon & Schuster, 1997, ISBN 0-684-81102-2

Recommended by Bronislaw Chrobok

Highly recommended reading, very favorably reviewed by prestigous publications, including The Economist. This is Sikorski's third book..... He writes superbly, in English.

Born in 1963 in Bydgoszcz, he spent the the Martial Law years at Oxford in England. Became a freelance journalist for some of the leading British newspapers, traipsing around Afghanisrtan with the Afghan guerrilas. Subsequently went to Angola and reported on the Savimbi insurrection against the Cuban armed Communists in that part of Africa. He is an adventurous fellow.

The book has as its theme his rebuilding of an old "dworek" [manor house] near Bydgoszcz -- not just a real-estate investment, but a literal and symbolic contribution to the task of rebuilding his country after Communism. He uses this literary artifice to write about his own life, the history of the region and essentially the inside story of the Communists and all that they managed to spoil, devastate and corrupt. It is moving, funny and controversial. One of the best chapters is about his tenure as Deputy Minister of Defence in the first freely elected Government. He was 29 at the time! Anybody with an interest in Poland should get a lot of enjoyment from reading this book.

Copyright Š 1997 APAP - posted by permission