Falling into Place: A Story of Love, Poland, and the Making of a Travel Writer

by Thomas Swick, Pico Iyer (Foreword)

From Booklist's Starred "[Swick] keenly and empathically observes the world, bringing both a relatably human approach and learned appreciation for the art of travel and of life." Working as a feature writer in 1976, Thomas Swick falls in love with a visiting Polish student named Hania and soon moves with her to Warsaw. The next decade sees Thomas living in Poland, Greece, and Philadelphia. He declines an invitation to be a Polish informer, sees John Paul II embolden the masses on his first trip back to his homeland since becoming pope, witnesses the rise of Solidarity and the imposition of martial law in Poland, and walks with thousands of Poles on the pilgrimage to Częstochowa, an annual religious rite that blossoms into a nine-day protest march. In 1989, he watches Hania vote in her country’s first free elections since pre-war independence. One month later, he lands his dream job as a travel writer. Falling into Place is the personal story of a young man’s discovery of the world and his development as a travel writer. It is also a love story, as he and Hania overcome cultural differences, communist bureaucracy, and unhealthy separations. Intertwined with both is the story of the revolution that altered history. With the world’s attention once again turned to Eastern Europe, and a Cold War reality, this memoir can help Americans better understand both.

Genres: Travel, Memoir, Nonfiction

260 pages, Hardcover

Published November 15, 2023

Reviews

[Gretchen Bednarz · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredible amount of parallels in our lives. Probably the first travel book I’ve ever written where it felt more of a reflection or perspective of the writer than about the place, but I see how he weaved his life together with polish history. I like honestly much of his reverence towards certain things like Catholicism and culture and local customs that can only be discerned by an expat. His vocab was so wild tho, an AP lang essay for sureee

[Cooper Lindstrom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although interesting and did good demonstrating a new way to view traveling abroad, I found it didn’t keep my attention and was hard to read/follow at times

[Diana Manevskaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave it a 4 for descriptions of Poland and the life in the 1980s there through the American’s eyes.
But, overall, it was a rather long, slow read…