The Last Mazurka: A Tale of War, Passion and Loss

This is the paperback edition of Andrew Tarnowski's critically-acclaimed memoir, a beautifully-written saga which is the first book to both chart Poland's brutal 20th-century history and to reveal the secret world of an intriguing clan. "The Last Mazurka" is a good old-fashioned tale of love and passion, warring families, jealousy, violence, hidden secrets and betrayal, all set against the back drop of the Great War and the Second World War, with snowy landscapes, wolf hunts, grand lords and a healthy splash of vodka. Written with rich detail and dialogue, unexpected humour, and brutal honesty, it is full of extraordinary anecdote, vibrant characters and intriguing locations (Poland, London, Paris, Scotland, Cairo, Belgrade, Palestine). But it is also a tale of exile and loss, of devastation, self-destruction and downfall. Tarnowski has written with honesty and tenderness, never shying away from the painful and sometimes unedifying details. The result is a brilliant snapshot of a lost world. Never was Tolstoy's dictum 'each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way' so apt.