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Danuta: A novel based on the life of Danuta Buczak
In the spring of 1941, a 17-year-old girl living in Soviet-occupied eastern Poland is arrested by the Russian secret police and sent with her infant son to a labor camp in Siberia. Her name: Danuta Buczak. Her crime: being the wife of a Polish army lieutenant.
She will see her husband sentenced to be executed. She will bury her child on a Siberian hillside. Yet Danuta's defiant spirit cannot be crushed. Determined to return to Poland and freedom, this courageous young woman slips past her labor camp guards on a snowy night late in 1941 and sets out alone on an incredible journey across the vast Soviet empire.
Danuta is a novel based on the real-life saga of Danuta Buczak.
She will see her husband sentenced to be executed. She will bury her child on a Siberian hillside. Yet Danuta's defiant spirit cannot be crushed. Determined to return to Poland and freedom, this courageous young woman slips past her labor camp guards on a snowy night late in 1941 and sets out alone on an incredible journey across the vast Soviet empire.
Danuta is a novel based on the real-life saga of Danuta Buczak.
356 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
1 person is currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
John Koenig
15 books3 followersI'm a veteran journalist and recently published my first novel, Danuta. The novel was inspired by the real-life saga of a Polish girl who, in 1941, was arrested by the Soviet secret police and sent with her infant son to a labor camp in Siberia.
The early years of my journalism career were devoted to investigative work, chasing crooked cops and drug dealers. After marriage and parenthood, I switched to a tamer career reporting on businesses and corporate executives. My wife found lawsuits preferable to death threats.
Now, we live in Austin, Texas, where I help my wife with her consulting practice, walk the dog, babysit our two grandchildren, and work on my second novel. This one's a contemporary story, set in Florida, where I lived and worked for more than 25 years. Stay tuned. I'll have it ready for publication in a year or two.
The early years of my journalism career were devoted to investigative work, chasing crooked cops and drug dealers. After marriage and parenthood, I switched to a tamer career reporting on businesses and corporate executives. My wife found lawsuits preferable to death threats.
Now, we live in Austin, Texas, where I help my wife with her consulting practice, walk the dog, babysit our two grandchildren, and work on my second novel. This one's a contemporary story, set in Florida, where I lived and worked for more than 25 years. Stay tuned. I'll have it ready for publication in a year or two.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 23, 2013
I picked up "Danuta" by John Koenig when I really didn’t have any business getting engrossed in a novel. But I was traveling and thought I’d read during takeoff and then get back to my laptop as soon as the captain's orders were announced. I picked up "Danuta," started reading and was halfway across the country before I looked up from the pages. I was hooked.
The story itself is fascinating: the true tale of a Polish teenager who survives the Nazi invasion only to fall victim to the Soviet occupation. She and her infant son are sent to a labor camp in Siberia, for the sole reason that her husband is a Polish army officer.
But the way that Koenig tells the tale adds further suspense and heartbreaking drama. The novel is based on the real Danuta Buczak, who the author interviewed extensively before she died. While the story is fictionalized, it was clear to me as I read it that her character and her story were not romanticized. Danuta is not always a sympathetic character. I found myself a little frustrated with her sometimes flighty, selfish, short-sighted behavior. Then I realized she was 17, a wife, a mother, a provider to her three-generation household in war-torn Poland during World War II. Danuta isn't a fairy tale heroine. She's a truly typical teenage girl at that time and place. I loved how "Danuta" was refreshingly real.
Reading "Danuta" made me wish I could have heard the real Danuta Buczak tell of her exploits. She admits that her short marriage wasn't the romance that she envisioned, the "bad guys" weren't always bad, and the "good guys" sometimes fell short. Some of the other characters' stories were rarely tied up neatly in a bow. The fate of many of Danuta's friends and neighbors were never known.
It's hard to believe that this is Koenig's first novel. He's a great writer and I can't wait to read what's next from him!
The story itself is fascinating: the true tale of a Polish teenager who survives the Nazi invasion only to fall victim to the Soviet occupation. She and her infant son are sent to a labor camp in Siberia, for the sole reason that her husband is a Polish army officer.
But the way that Koenig tells the tale adds further suspense and heartbreaking drama. The novel is based on the real Danuta Buczak, who the author interviewed extensively before she died. While the story is fictionalized, it was clear to me as I read it that her character and her story were not romanticized. Danuta is not always a sympathetic character. I found myself a little frustrated with her sometimes flighty, selfish, short-sighted behavior. Then I realized she was 17, a wife, a mother, a provider to her three-generation household in war-torn Poland during World War II. Danuta isn't a fairy tale heroine. She's a truly typical teenage girl at that time and place. I loved how "Danuta" was refreshingly real.
Reading "Danuta" made me wish I could have heard the real Danuta Buczak tell of her exploits. She admits that her short marriage wasn't the romance that she envisioned, the "bad guys" weren't always bad, and the "good guys" sometimes fell short. Some of the other characters' stories were rarely tied up neatly in a bow. The fate of many of Danuta's friends and neighbors were never known.
It's hard to believe that this is Koenig's first novel. He's a great writer and I can't wait to read what's next from him!
February 17, 2017
Danuta
Amazing woman, amazing life. I would recommended this to anyone. I knew Danuta and was a remarkable woman. I can still hear her voice today.
Amazing woman, amazing life. I would recommended this to anyone. I knew Danuta and was a remarkable woman. I can still hear her voice today.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews