'Thomas was born in the village of Gine at that time of year when a ripe apple thumps to the ground during an afternoon lull.' So a boy's life begins in a winding river valley on the Polish-Russian border where time is measured by seasonal rhythms and ancient songs. For Thomas, the ghosts in the forest are as real as the magical water-snakes that live in the Issa; in the village he is entranced by the women with their cinched waists and the men in their long boots. But when he is shown a map, he discovers a kingdom all his own and starts to dream of leaving the valley behind.

Not only an impressive but an immediately appealing novel ... The Issa Valley has the sensuousness and immediacy one associates with novels apparently inspired by the writer's own childhood recollections: David Copperfield and The Mill on the Floss come to mind * Times Literary Supplement *
Nothing rings false in this poetic and realistic tale. Even the scenes that ... belong to another time and place will hold your attention to the end -- Elie Wiesel
A lyrical account of a rural boyhood, dominated by family, nature and village life ... One is constantly aware of being in the hands of a master—of a talent that is original, unhurried, almost serene ... He is a remarkable writer -- Larry McMurty
An idyll of immense charm and poetic depth ... It takes a masterpiece to reveal the sheer unreality of our modern creative modes and poses, and Milosz's novel is such a masterpiece -- John Bayley * The New York Review of Books *

Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980. Born in Lithuania while it was still part of the Russian Empire, he lived much of his life in Poland or exiled in California. He was the author of one of the definitive books on totalitarianism, The Captive Mind, but also wrote with extraordinary vividness and moral authority on his childhood, his experiences under Nazism and on the tragedy of Central Europe.