This is a holocaust survivor's story, which in bare and bleak prose follows the actions of one woman entirely focused on saving her husband from the concentration camp and re-uniting. Told from the time she is settled in Israel with the post WWII children and grandchildren whose lives and language are opaque to her. ( )

Chasing the King of Hearts is a love story. Izolde expends much time and energy trying to find her husband, Shayek, who has been arrested and sent to Auschwitz, hoping to keep him alive, and get him out. She also tries to keep her family and his family safe.

Krall's understated delivery of Izolda's complex plans and efforts on behalf of her husband engage readers' attention. And providing details of Izolda's future life in Israel compel us to continue reading to learn what happens in-between.

Different in so many ways from other Holocaust memoirs I've read. Krall is more frank and open about what people had to do during the horrors of the Holocaust to survive, and help their families survive. Chasing the King of Hearts also describes in painful detail challenges survivors faced AFTER the war.

Reading this book will provide another perspective to this historical nightmare.

Chasing the King of Hearts tells the story of Izolda, who meets Shayek in Warsaw during WWII and marries him. They live first in the ghetto until Izolda, who is unrelentingly resourceful and determined, smuggles herself out. She manages to get Shayek out too, as well as their parents but the war is harsh and unrelenting and over time their family members disappear or are arrested. Shayek is eventually arrested and all of Izolda's ingenuity is focused on getting to him. She endures much and survives because of her ability to think on her feet and to take any chances she sees.

From the beginning of the story we know that Izolda survives. There are segments set long after the war, when Izolda is an elderly woman living in Israel trying to tell her story to her grandchildren. The reader knows that she lives, but how she survives makes for quite a story. Izolda is a real person, who found the author, Hanna Krall, and asked her to write her story for her. Krall is well respected as a journalist in Poland and documents people's experiences in a narrative style much like Svetlana Alexievich. Here, she tells Izolda's story in a straight-forward way, eliding much of the harsher moments, but without omitting them. The reader knows Izolda is raped or that the conditions of her imprisonment were harsh, but these events are presented as facts, less important than her overriding need to find her husband.

She follows the policewoman.

The nearest station is on Poznanska Street. Not a good place, getting out won't be easy.

She has her pearl ring. She thinks: Should I give it to her right away? And why did she say you're all alike? By all she means Jews. Excuse me, Ma'am, she risks the question. What did you mean by all alike? Stop playing dumb--the policewoman now makes no effort to be polite. I'm from the vice squad, now do you understand?

Now she understands.

They're not taking her for a Jew but for a whore. What a relief, thank God, they're just taking me for a whore.

The sheer number of close calls and daring escapes experienced by this single woman would sound unlikely in a novel, but Izolda's personality and determination made each unlikely moment feel inevitable. This is an extraordinary story. ( )

Izolda and her husband along with their families live in the Warsaw ghetto. When her husband is taken and sent to Auschwitz, she will do anything to free him, help him survive. Along the way she tries to save her family and friends but her main focus is her husband. Her King of hearts, and what she does along Tue way to accomplish this is nothing short of staggering.

Told in a series of vignettes, reading very matter of fact and in an, unemotional voice voiced, this is a novel of fear and desperation as well as hope and determination.. It is the hope that she will get to her husband before he is killed by the horrific Nazi killing machine. She is often inadvertently aided by fate, something she will often dwell on in later life. If she didn't do this, that would have happened, if she hadn't gone here, she would have been killed. Without knowing she does and makes many moves that save her life. This is based on a true story, and it really is a wonder the many things she does and how her decisions at the time seem foolish but serve her in the end. Not that she doesn't go through horrific things, she does but her implacable quest to save her husband will also end up saving her. Truly unbelievable events occur that make this possible.

This woman had quite a life, but I am not sure if I liked the unemotional telling, while it was definitely easier to read as far as emotional toll, it also kept me at a distance. Still a remarkable story about a remarkable young woman. ( )

Izolda is Jewish and living in Poland at a time when being Jewish is dangerous. Her husband, Shayek, has been arrested by the Nazis. And Izolda is left to fend for herself. She is nothing if not determined – determined to escape the Ghetto, determined to evade arrest herself, determined to survive, determined to find her husband who she loves. Even when she finds herself in Auschwitz, she clings to hope and trusts she will survive the war and be reunited with Shayek.

Based on a true story, Hanna Krall’s novella, Chasing the King of Hearts, is a poignant story of love and survival. Written in a surprisingly off-hand style, the book exposes the horror of the Holocaust. Krall has a way of showing just how arbitrary life and death were within the Warsaw ghetto, the concentration camps, and elsewhere in Poland during this horrible time in history. There are moments of humor mixed in with unimaginable images of torture and suffering. Izolda is a captivating character who comes alive on the page. To survive she must use her finely honed sense of what is safe and what is not, she must keep moving, she must accept help where she can and risk everything.

Krall includes real black and white photos in her short book which reminds the reader that this is not wholly fiction, but something between fiction and reality. I found myself moved by these simple photos, faces looking out at a camera that reminded me that yes, there were these people…real people…who lived through something we can only vaguely imagine.

Peirene Press is known for their short, literary works and this one is particularly good. Krall’s writing is poetic with a simplicity that transforms her story into something amazing. This is a book which will appeal to readers who love literary and historical fiction.

Chasing the King of Hearts is a translated work and is only now available for the first time in English. The book won the 2013 English Pen Award, and was shortlisted for the Angelus Central European Literary Award.

Highly recommended. ( )