'Even the worst calamity can be overcome, because life is stronger than war, and love is stronger than hate.' Nathalie Hartmann's memoir begins with an evocative and beautiful description of her childhood among the mists and swamps of eastern Poland. All too soon, though, come the unspeakable horrors of the Second World War, in which 18% of the Polish population perished, followed by the misery of life under communism. But life improves with a happy interlude in West Africa, and finally escape to the West. This moving book, written with an extraordinary memory for detail and the skill of a born raconteur, is the story of a brave woman who looks back from a serene old age on the twist and turns of a life full of both extraordinary hardship and great happiness.