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Surviving War, Oceans Apart

Douglas Pratt
@DouglasPratt
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It's available at last. I've worked on this book more than any two other books in the past 12 years. I started narrating it in July. It took six months because the author reviewed every bit of it. But the story is worth the trouble.

Did you ever listen to someone telling of their experiences, and say, "Someone should write a book about you!" This is that book.

Bogdan Mieczkowski grew up in Poland and fought in the Warsaw Uprising. Seiko Kawakami was a child in Otaru, a city in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

Bogdan’s family abandoned its home in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and fled to Warsaw, where Bogdan fought for the Polish Home Army in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Bogdan sustained severe injuries, and after the Germans crushed the Uprising, he endured seven POW camps.

On the other side of the globe, in Hokkaido, Japan, Seiko’s country went to war against the U.S. With school suspended, Seiko worked in a wartime factory. Her older sister died during the war, while her older brother trained as a kamikaze pilot.

Once the war ended, both Bogdan and Seiko immigrated to the U.S. Bogdan, a PhD economist, was working in banking. Seiko was pursuing her Master's in history at Columbia. They met thanks to the slow elevator in their apartment building.

One of their sons, Yanek, is a historian and author, and I narrated his Eisenhower's Sputnik Moment a few years ago. We connected because Seiko had taught Japanese at my alma mater, Eisenhower College. When I learned about this book, I had to narrate it. Yanek is a fine writer and storyteller, and the book is splendid in balance and pacing, as well as being full of the kinds of stories I love to tell.

Please PM me for a free review copy. I'm anxious for you all to hear this remarkable book.

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Discussion (3)

  • Subcomandante America@TheReticulator
    Douglas Pratt (View Post):

    Bogdan’s family abandoned its home in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and fled to Warsaw, where Bogdan fought for the Polish Home Army in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

    Bydgoszcz is a city that was never bombed during WWII. That doesn't mean there was nothing to flee from, of course, but it does mean the city still has many of its old buildings. We stayed in one of the old, elegant hotels several years ago. Later we stayed in one in Warsaw that survived the bombing and destruction, but in Warsaw it was an exception for buildings to survive.

    In two relatively short visits to Poland this year I didn't make it to Bydgoszcz, so I didn't have a chance to see if my pronunciation would still get corrected every time I said that name.

    I used one of my Audible credits to put the book in my queue. I think I will have trouble using up all my credits by the end of my subscription period, but if I'm mistaken about that I may come begging for review copies of some of your other books that I haven't yet listened to.

  • Douglas Pratt@DouglasPratt
    ReplyingtoSubcomandante America
    Douglas Pratt (View Post):

    Bogdan’s family abandoned its home in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and fled to Warsaw, where Bogdan fought for the Polish Home Army in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

    Subcomandante America (View Comment):

    Bydgoszcz is a city that was never bombed during WWII. That doesn’t mean there was nothing to flee from, of course, but it does mean the city still has many of its old buildings. We stayed in one of the old, elegant hotels several years ago. Later we stayed in one in Warsaw that survived the bombing and destruction, but in Warsaw it was an exception for buildings to survive.

    In two relatively short visits to Poland this year I didn’t make it to Bydgoszcz, so I didn’t have a chance to see if my pronunciation would still get corrected every time I said that name.

    I used one of my Audible credits to put the book in my queue. I think I will have trouble using up all my credits by the end of my subscription period, but if I’m mistaken about that I may come begging for review copies of some of your other books that I haven’t yet listened to.

    Bogdan's father ran a construction supply company, Impregnaczyia. The house he built for his family still stands. Since Bydgoszcz is so close to the German border (Poles say that they don't have allies, only neighbors), they had to escape literally with the clothes on their backs. The Nazis systematically rounded up and killed all educated, wealthy or prominent Poles.

    Pronunciation was the biggest challenge of doing this book. I was taught to enunciate vowels. In Polish, vowels get buzzed or slurred over. Yanek carefully reviewed each chapter as soon as I did the first edit pass. Time and again, I'd get the words right in the first part, and my Western brain would take over and start pronouncing them the way they looked. Valerie said I was wandering around the house muttering "bid-GOSH-chuh" to myself. But I was so enamored of this book once I had read it, I just had to tell the stories.

    You know you never have to beg for any of my titles. I'm delighted to share them with friends. I can't autograph audiobooks, but I can give 'em away. Thanks for the sale, and if you want to send a freebie to any friends or relatives, let me know.