- Description
In an attempt to save their child from the mass extermination of Jews, the parents send their son to live with a relative in the countryside somewhere in Eastern Europe. However, the boy's aunt dies unexpectedly, and the child is forced to embark on a journey and wade all alone through a wild and hostile world where only local rules, prejudices and superstitions apply.
But his quest for literal physical survival is replaced by another struggle after the war. A struggle he is not even aware of, a struggle with himself, a struggle for his soul, for his future...
The Painted Bird is a deeply dramatic story dealing with the immediate relationship between horror and cruelty on the one hand and innocence and love on the other. It is the first and most famous novel by Jerzy Kosinski, author of I Was There and Pinball, one of the most important and internationally acclaimed writers of the last century...