Summary of Chasing the King of Hearts
“Chasing the King of Hearts” recounts the harrowing story of the Polish-Jewish couple Izolda and Shayek during the Second World War. They escape the Warsaw Ghetto and try to survive the war by posing as non-Jewish Poles. When Shayek is captured and sent to Auschwitz, and later to Ebensee (a subcamp of Mauthausen), Izolda does everything in her power to save him. Both survive the war and resume their lives, acutely aware of the loss of their friends and family.
Reasons to read Chasing the King of Hearts
The novella “Chasing the King of Hearts” is an epic tale of love and survival during the Holocaust. Hanna Krall, a Polish writer of Jewish origin, survived the Holocaust as a child. Her book “Chasing the King of Hearts” garnered many awards, including the Würth Preis for European Literature in 2012 and the English PEN Translation Award in 2018. Krall also received the Herder Prize in 2005 for her novel “The Subtenant”.
Setting: Poland, Austria, Germany
Book set in Poland (Warsaw, Kraków, Auschwitz), Austria (Ebensee, Vienna), and Germany (Guben).
Original title: Król kier znów na wylocie
Year of publication: 2006
Nr of pages: 192
