[In "Poland" Michener] depicted the history of that colorful and unhappy land, sparked by a realistic portrayal of a large number of characters, historic and fictional. Significant periods of its history are treated at length and in attractive detail.

The book thus provides an absorbing account of the country's thousand-year history, highlighted by a narrative studded with fascinating characters and crucial events….

This historic overview, while basic to the narrative as a whole, is closely combined with the imaginative part of the book. The lavish and conspicuously-extravagant life of the magnatic families is depicted with the breadth and depth of the realistic novelist….

The penultimate chapter deals with the Nazi brutalities in Poland and with the horrible conditions in the concentration camps of Maidenak and Auschwitz. The heroic opposition of some of the Poles is stressed, with the peasants, gentry and magnates each struggling against the enemy with...