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{en} Jerzy Kosinski. The Painted Bird. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965). <semi-autobiographical novel>

• See Jerzy Kosinski / Józef Lewinkopf (M / Poland, 1933-1991), Holocaust survivor.

Adaptations

• {pl} Nabarvené ptáče (film, 2019)

Abstract

Although the novel reflects the author's personal experiences, it is not an autobiographical account. Jerry did not live separated from his family nor suffered the abuses described in the novel. He lived with his own parents under false identity in a rural village in Poland, protected by Christian friends. The novel is a work of imagination that reflects his worst fears and nightmares during the Holocaust.

"Jerzy Kosinski's mythic, master-work of a shattered post-War Europe ... Originally published in 1965, The Painted Bird established Jerzy Kosinski as a major literary figure. Kosinski's story follows a dark-haired, olive-skinned boy, abandoned by his parents during World War II, as he wanders alone from one village to another, sometimes hounded and tortured, only rarely sheltered and cared for. Through the juxtaposition of adolescence and the most brutal of adult experiences, Kosinski sums up a Bosch-like world of harrowing excess where senseless violence and untempered hatred are the norm. Through sparse prose and vivid imagery, Kosinski's novel is a story of mythic proportion, even more relevant to today's society than it was upon its original publication."--Publisher description.