Rondo: A Novel

In Rondo, Kazimierz Brandys eloquently explores many of the obsessions of contemporary literature—politics, war, art, and personal exile—against the backdrop of a touching, enthralling love story. One of the previous century's great literary figures, Brandys "quickened the conscience and enriched the writing of the 20th century" (Time). Rondo is the culmination of a career of gripping portrayals of ordinary people in the mode of Socialist Realism that made him an icon.

In his own words, Tom is an insignificant man, powerless to effect changes even in himself let alone in others. He is pathologically normal, with "something of Buster Keaton" to him. Yet an initially harmless fabrication motivated by his love for Tola, an actress of the Warsaw stage, will move him to center stage in one of the 20th century's most infamous conflicts and will ultimately change the course of history.

Following the Nazi occupation of Warsaw at the outset of WWII, Tola wants to enlist in the Polish Resistance. To protect her, Tom, whose family connections have unexpectedly made him the symbolic heir to Polish nationalism, conscripts Tola into an imaginary political cadre—"Rondo." The idea is innocent at first, little more than a flight of Tom's fantasy, but through its own comic momentum, Rondo unexpectedly becomes a major player in the Polish underground. When Tom is drawn into the internal politics of the real Resistance, the results are not only highly entertaining but telling of the eternal follies of war.