A Long, Long Time Ago & Essentially True (2009) is the debut novel of Brigid Pasulka. After its release, it won a PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award for Fiction and was recommended by Barnes & Noble as a Discover Great New Writers pick. Pasulka’s life offers some parallels to that of her central character in the novel. Both first visited Kraków, Poland, in the early 1990s, shortly after communist rule of the country ended. In addition, Pasulka is a descendant of Polish immigrants. A Chicago resident, she teaches English at one of the city’s high schools. This extends her connection to Poland since Chicago has the largest Polish population of any city in the US. The author followed her debut novel with a second book, The Sun and Other Stars (2014). A Long, Long Time Ago & Essentially True is categorized as Historical Literary Fiction and Contemporary Literary Fiction.

This study guide and all its page citations are based on the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2009 Kindle e-book edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The novel contains incidents of antisemitism, rape, alcohol addiction, and wartime violence.

Plot Summary

The novel’s chapters alternate between two distinct timelines: 1939 and 1992. In both periods, the narrator is the protagonist of the 1992 timeline. She adopts an omniscient narrative voice to tell the story of the 1939 characters and uses first-person narration to tell her own story in 1992. The novel is set in the górale (highlander) region of southwestern Poland in the small town of Half-Village and also in the urban center of Kraków, approximately 50 miles away. The characters from both timelines visit and/or live in these two locations throughout the novel. As a 22-year-old girl named Beata tries to chart her course in life and come to grips with the tragic war experiences of her grandparents, the novel explores the themes of Transcending the Past, Building a Future, and Claiming an Identity.

The story begins in 1939 in rural Poland with a young man named Czesław. He’s nicknamed “the Pigeon,” and his sole ambition in life is to marry the girl of his dreams: Anielica Hetmański. Czesław decides to offer his carpentry services to her father, a local sheep farmer. Over time, Czesław renovates the property and wins Anielica’s heart. However, a Nazi invasion interrupts their marriage plans. Czesław immediately rallies the local families in Half-Village to hide their food and livestock before Hitler’s army arrives. He’s assisted by Anielica’s brother, Władysław, and his new wife, Marysia. Everyone participates in the Polish resistance movement, and Czesław and Władysław are gone for extended periods on reconnaissance missions. After returning from one of these missions, Czesław finds Anielica and Marysia being raped by two Nazi soldiers, whom he shoots. Marysia’s Jewish family disposes of the bodies, but both Anielica and Czesław carry the tragedy of that day with them for the rest of their lives.

After the war ends, Czesław and Anielica relocate to Kraków to find work. They’re accompanied by Władysław, Marysia, and their infant daughter, Irena. Now that the Russian communists have taken control of Poland, spies are everywhere. People report on their neighbors, and someone alerts the secret police to Czesław’s wartime activities. Shortly after marrying Anielica, he’s spirited away and never seen again. Certain that the communists have killed him, Anielica returns to Half-Village, pregnant with a daughter who will never see her father. This daughter, Ania, later gives birth to a girl named Beata but dies when the child is six. Anielica raises Beata and dies when her granddaughter is 22. At this point, Beata’s story begins.

In the 1992 timeline, Beata is grieving her grandmother’s death and goes to live in Kraków. She moves into an apartment with her aunt Irena and her cousin Magda. Beata has no idea what to do with the rest of her life and takes a series of meaningless jobs that include working as a bartender at a local music club. The clarinet player starts dating Beata and gives her a used video camera because she likes movies so much. He encourages her to start recording and go to film school. However, Beata thinks this dream of a career as a filmmaker is too ambitious and shies away from it.

In contrast to her cousin, Magda has big dreams. She wants to attend law school but has trouble applying herself. The cousins grow closer after Magda takes a part-time bartending job at the music club while studying for her exams. There, Magda finds herself attracted to Sebastian, one of the bar’s patrons. He invites Magda and Beata to several parties at his upscale flat, where drugs circulate freely. After Sebastian rebuffs her at one of these parties, Magda uses cocaine. Because of an undiagnosed heart condition, however, the cocaine kills her. Beata is stricken with grief and guilt for not keeping a closer watch over her cousin.

As Beata spirals into despair, she receives an unexpected visit from Czesław. He has been alive in New York all these years but couldn’t return to Poland until the communist blacklist ended. During a trip to Half-Village, both Czesław and Beata confess their guilt to each other. Speaking about their pain allows both to move forward with their lives. Afterward, Beata starts interviewing war survivors and videotapes their personal stories. Like her country struggling to find its identity after communism ends, Beats finally dares to pursue filmmaking.