The Painted Bird is a 1965 novel by Jerzy Kosiński that depicts the Second World War as witnessed by a boy taken for a Gypsy or Jewish stray, wandering among villages in an unnamed country in Central or Eastern Europe usually assumed to be Poland. Kosiński originally described the book as autobiographical, but announced on its publication by Houghton Mifflin that it was a purely fictional account; a 1993 journalistic exposé later confirmed the depicted events were fictional rather than drawn from the author's own wartime experience. The novel recounts the boy's encounters with extreme violence and social deviance among the peasants he meets, and takes its title from an episode in which a captured bird, painted several colors by a bird catcher and released to rejoin its flock, is instead attacked and killed by the other birds as an intruder. Long regarded as part of the literary Holocaust canon, the book has lost much of that standing since its fictional basis became widely known.
Facts
Classification
Original Language Composed, From (Year) Connections
Authored By
Source The Painted Bird (Wikipedia)
In Genre
Source The Painted Bird (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Original Language
Also in Language Atlas: the original language of this subject.
Originated In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Source The Painted Bird (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. The Painted Bird (Wikipedia)
Lead
The Painted Bird is a 1965 novel by Jerzy Kosiński that describes World War II as seen by a boy, considered a "Gypsy or Jewish stray," wandering about small villages scattered around an unspecified country in Central or Eastern Europe (usually assumed to be Poland).
Lead paragraph
The Painted Bird is a 1965 novel by Jerzy Kosiński that describes World War II as seen by a boy, considered a "Gypsy or Jewish stray," wandering about small villages scattered around an unspecified country in Central or Eastern Europe (usually assumed to be Poland).
In Genre: The Novel, Lead section
The Painted Bird is a 1965 novel by Jerzy Kosiński that describes World War II as seen by a boy, considered a "Gypsy or Jewish stray," wandering about small villages scattered around an unspecified country in Central or Eastern Europe (usually assumed to be Poland).
Authored By: Jerzy Kosiński, Lead section
The Painted Bird is a 1965 novel by Jerzy Kosiński that describes World War II as seen by a boy, considered a "Gypsy or Jewish stray," wandering about small villages scattered around an unspecified country in Central or Eastern Europe (usually assumed to be Poland).
View the SourceReader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.