With great candor, humor, and vividness, Maia Wojciechowska gives an autobiographical account of how she lived through the years 1939–1942 [in Till the Break of Day]…. Her family managed to escape from Poland and went from town to town in France and then to Madrid, Lisbon, London, and finally the United States. At each stopover Maia waged her personal war against the Germans. For example, in France she and her brother were willing to risk death in order to shoot at the Germans. Frustrated in this attempt, they harassed the enemy by stealing hundreds of their bicycles, slashing tires, wrecking truck motors. Many of Maia's escapades and lucky breaks will make the reader gasp. In describing herself Maia gives a true picture of the adolescent. Her obsession with ideals, death, love, self-hatred will strike a responsive chord. This is a book for everyone.

Shirley Weinstein, in her review of...