Falling into Place

Falling into Place: A Memoir of Love, Poland, and the Making of a Travel Writer is a coming-of-age story tied to a historic moment, the defining one of the second half of the twentieth century in Eastern Europe.

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Working as a feature writer in 1976, Thomas Swick falls in love with a visiting Polish student named Haina and soon moves with her to Warsaw. The next decade sees Thomas living in Poland, Greece, and New York. He declines an invitation to be a Polish informer, sees John Paul II embolden the masses on his first trip back to his homeland since becoming pope, witnesses the rise of Solidarity and the imposition of martial law in Poland, and walks with thousands of Poles on the pilgrimage to Częstochowa, an annual religious rite that blossoms into a nine-day protest march. In 1989, he watches Hania vote in her country’s first free elections since pre-war independence. One month later, he lands his dream job as a travel writer.

Falling into Place is the personal story of a young man’s discovery of the world and his development as a travel writer. It is also a love story, as he and Hania overcome cultural differences, communist bureaucracy, and unhealthy separations. Intertwined with both is the story of the revolution that altered history. With the world’s attention once again turned to Eastern Europe, and a Cold War reality, this memoir can help Americans better understand both.