A French novel about Jan Karski

AK, 16 November 2016
On 3 September, a novel about the famous messenger from Warsaw, Jan Karski, written by Yannick Haenel, appeared in print in France. The book instantly became a bestseller and was granted an award of booksellers and readers of a chain of FNAC bookstores. It was also nominated for a prestigious French literary award of the Goncourt.


As a result of this literary premiere, Jan Karski aroused interest in France. He was a hero who, as an emissary of the Polish Underground State, informed the Allies about the Holocaust in Poland. However, nobody believed him.

Haenel’s novel does not have a typical form. It consists of three parts. The first part relates Karski’s remarks from Claude Lanzmann’s movie “Shoah”. The second chapter summarizes the messenger’s war experiences included in his book ‘Story of a Secret State’. The final part is fictionalized and its author tries to reconstruct Karski’s thoughts after the World War II when Karski, aware that his dedication did not bring any results, left to the U.S.

Yannick Haenel wrote this book as a tribute to Jan Karski. In one of his interviews, he said: ‘For me, Karski is a carrier of the truth about the world which does not want the truth… He is not only a Polish hero, he is a hero of the world’.

On 26 October, the author is going to talk about his novel in the editorial office of Gazeta Wyborcza. On the next day, he will participate in a symposium dedicated to Karski, in Katowice.

The book will be published in Poland by Wydawnictwo Literackie (in France it was published by Gallimard).

Interview with the writer