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A panoramic and epic novel in the grand
romantic style, Push Not the River is the rich story
of Poland in the late 1700s--a time of heartache and turmoil
as the country's once peaceful people are being torn apart
by neighboring countries and divided loyalties. It is then,
at the young and vulnerable age of seventeen, when Lady Anna
Maria Berezowska loses both of her parents and must leave
the only home she has ever known.
With Empress Catherine's Russian armies
streaming in to take their spoils, Anna is quickly thrust
into a world of love and hate, loyalty and deceit, patriotism
and treason, life and death. Even kind Aunt Stella, Anna's
new guardian who soon comes to personify Poland's courage
and spirit, can't protect Anna from the uncertain future of
the country.
Anna, a child no longer, turns to love
and comfort in the form of Jan, a brave patriot and architect
of democracy, unaware that her beautiful and enigmatic cousin
Zofia has already set her sights on the handsome young fighter.
Thus Anna walks unwittingly into Zofia's jealous wrath and
darkly sinister intentions.
Forced to survive several tragic events,
many of them orchestrated by the crafty Zofia, a strengthened
Anna begins to learn to place herself in the way of destiny--for
love and for country. Heeding the proud spirit of her late
father, Anna becomes a major player in the fight against the
countries who come to partion her beloved Poland.
Push Not the River is based on
the true eighteenth century diary of Anna Maria Berezowska,
a Polish countess who lived through the rise and fall of the
historic Third of May Constitution. Vivid, romantic, and thrillingly
paced, it paints the emotional and unforgettable story of
the metamorphosis of a nation--and of a proud and resilient
young woman.
A native of Chicago, James Conroyd
Martin chairs the English Department at Marian High
School, a well-known college-prep high school in Chicago Heights,
Illinois. He holds degrees from St. Ambrose and DePaul Universities.
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