The Silver Sword

Name: The Silver Sword
Rating: 4.59 (2144 reviews)

by Ian Serraillier

First published 1956

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4.6(2,144)

In occupied Warsaw, Joseph Balicki is imprisoned and his wife Margrit is deported for forced labour, leaving their children Ruth, Edek and Bronia to survive amid the destruction of war. Their father later meets Jan, an orphaned boy carrying the small silver paper knife that becomes proof that the Balicki family may still be reunited.

After the fighting ends, Ruth, Edek, Bronia and Jan cross Poland and a devastated Germany in search of the children’s parents in Switzerland. Their journey through refugee camps, ruined cities and military checkpoints turns the novel into a story of endurance, improvised family and the displacement of children after the Second World War. The book was published in the United States as Escape from Warsaw.