Kobak, Annette. Joe's War: My Father Decoded.

KOBAK, Annette. Joe's war; my father decoded. Random House, Vintage. 444p. illus. notes. c2004. 0-375-72512-8. $16.00. A

Joe Kobak grew up in Czechoslovakia at an idyllic time in its history and is ending his life in the peaceful countryside of Australia; but in between, he lived through some of the most tumultuous events of the 20th century as a soldier, a spy, and a man beset by demons. As a child growing up in England with an English mother and a taciturn father, Annette Kobak knew little of her father's history. Only as an adult did she discover her father's story of his youth in Poland, his escape into France, his life as a young Polish soldier, his wartime experiences in England and his work as a decoder. She and a friend decided to retrace the steps her father took to help others escape from Poland and the Ukraine. The more she discovered about her father and his past, the more she wanted to know about Poland's involvement in WW II, its betrayal by the West and its occupation by the East.

The story becomes more than one man's wartime journey and how it affected his life and instead becomes a modern history of Poland. The author's style is rambling in some ways, but is based on extensive research, interviews and a thorough investigation that is both personal and philosophical and will give the reader an understanding and appreciation of Poland and what it has endured in the last century. Nola Theiss, Sanibel, FL

A--Recommended for advance students and adults. This code will help librarians and teacher working in high schools where there are honors and advanced placement students. This also will help extend KLIATT's usefulness in public libraries.