BEYOND THIS SHORE

Polish Profile was a segment of autobiography, touching upon that part of the Princess Sapieha's life dealing with her marriage to a Polish prince, her visit to the household of his family, her difficulty in making the adjustment, mentally, emotionally, to a wholly different way of life and thought. This is a sensitive, enlightened novel, which has roots in the same background, for it is a story of a rootless, uncertain American girl who falls in love with Stash, member of the Polish legation, marries him and crosses to Vienna, where he is stationed, there to face the conflict of old world and new, the authoritarian conception of the woman's role, the Polish stress on a faith which she has never known. The story bridges the period of her nostalgia, her departure for a time, her return when the Hitlerian threat hangs over Austria, and they go to Poland, on the eve of war. Stash stays on to fight, in Poland, in France, eventually joining her in America where she has learned to assimilate the values of two cultures. An appealing story, though permeated with the irresolution of the heroine. The popularity of Polish Profile (and its author) will enhance its sale.