Necessary Lies

June M. Blurton is a retired speech/language pathologist.

In the 1970s, Anna and Piotr are part of the anti-communist movement in
Poland. In 1981, just when their clandestine planning is beginning to
bear fruit, Anna is presented with the opportunity to do research at
McGill University in Montreal. She expects to rejoin her husband in six
months but falls in love with William, a German immigrant, and remains
in Canada. She returns to Poland 10 years later, by which time William
is dead. The family and friends Anna sees in Wroclaw and later in Berlin
all have memories of Poland under the Germans, under communism, and
during the painful period of reconstruction. These memories are often
told in the form of flashbacks, and although both they and the
characters themselves are interesting, there are too many of them and
the thread of the story is sometimes lost. Still, Necessary Lies is easy
to read and gives an excellent overview of recent events in Poland.