" Dobryd is an extraordinary novel, a powerful story inspired by Charney's own life, about a young girl who spends the first few years of her life hiding from Nazis with her mother and aunt in a haystack in a barn somewhere in rural Poland. . . . Running in the sun, playing with other children, going to the market, these are all things she has never experienced. And that's the genius of the novel. Unlike so many stories told of the horrors experienced in Europe during World War II, Charney doesn't write it as a tragedy.? Brendan Kelly, The Gazette
Cited among "The Best of Summer Books" by The Globe and Mail.
"Dobryd, Ann Charney. When it was first published in 1973, Charney?s autobiographical novel about her and her mother?s escape from Nazi-occupied Poland was compared to The Diary of Anne Frank for its powerful exploration of the effects of war. But the book was better received overseas than in Charney's adopted Canada ? one of its heroes being a Red Army soldier proved a complicating factor ? and it eventually fell out of print until this revival by a Quebec publisher."
"Brave, but scary, new world: Ann Charney's riveting girlhood memoir of life in post World War II-Poland." Melanie Jackson, The Seaboard Review
"One of the truly significant insights into the effects of war." Books in Canada
"A 'marvelous' autobiographical novel of a Jewish girl emerging from hiding in Poland after the defeat of the Nazis, and rediscovering freedom and hope."Publishers Weekly
"One of the best books on a European destiny in our century."Stuttgarter Zeitung, Germany
"Original and compelling, this book makes us believe in the possibility of happiness amid the terrors of war"Frankfurter Neue PresseGermany
"A terrifying and inspiring story of war seen through the eyes of a child." L?express, Belgium
"An extraordinary testimonial to the strength of the human spirit, even in the worst times." Flair, Belgium
"A tale told with great skill and simplicity; her book is a tour de force." Maclean's
"The novel's unsentimental, clear-eyed vision offers hope that, with luck, the human spirit can blossom under the most dreadful circumstances." Mary Soderstrom
