Out of the Red Shadow by Anne De Graaf
**Out of the Red Shadow** by Anne De Graaf is a historical fiction novel set against the backdrop of Cold War Poland, exploring themes of family, guilt, and the struggle for freedom. The story revolves around Jacek Duch, a former CIA agent whose life becomes entangled with the Piekarz family, including his long-lost daughter, Amy. As Poland grapples with political turmoil, Jacek's complicated past unfolds through his interactions with Amy's family, particularly her husband Jan and her brother-in-law Piotr, a leader in the Solidarność movement.
The narrative is rich in emotional depth, highlighting the internal conflicts of characters like Tomek and his sister Żanetka, who navigate their tumultuous lives amid family crises and societal upheaval. The novel also touches on the tragic consequences of Jacek's actions, including betrayal and loss, particularly following the death of Gonia, a pivotal event that impacts the entire family.
Through its structure, which includes biblical epigrams, the novel emphasizes themes of redemption and the search for solace amidst despair. Jacek’s journey towards reconciliation with his past and his family reflects a broader narrative about faith and resilience in the face of oppression. **Out of the Red Shadow** ultimately serves as a poignant reminder of the enduring human spirit and the quest for connection in troubled times.
Out of the Red Shadow by Anne De Graaf
First published: Minneapolis, Minn.: Bethany House, 1999
Genre(s): Novel
Subgenre(s): Historical fiction (twentieth century)
Core issue(s): Children; communism; guilt; healing; nature; social action
Principal characters
Jacek Skrzypek , also known asJacek Duch , a CIA agent who has for some time been operating in the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (Secret Police or SB) of PolandRoman , Jacek’s contact in the SBAmy Piekarz , Jacek’s daughterJan Piekarz , Amy’s husbandTomasz “Tomek” or “Tomku” Piekarz , Jan and Amy’s sonElżbieta “Żanetka” or “Żanetko” Piekarz , Jan and Amy’s oldest daughterMałgorzata “Gonia” Piekarz , Jan and Amy’s youngest daughterPiotr Piekarz , Amy’s former lover, Jan’s brother, a leader in the Solidarność movementHalina Piekarz , Piotr’s wifeHanna Piekarz , Piotr and Jan’s motherTadeusz Piekarz , Piotr and Jan’s father, a Protestant ministerEwa , andBogdan , friends of Amy, Jan, and Piotr, also involved in the resistance movementGabi , andJurek , two CIA agents assigned to protect Jacek
Overview
Out of the Red Shadow, winner of the Christy Award 2000 for international historical fiction, is the third and concluding novel of Anne de Graaf’s The Hidden Harvest. Set in Cold War Poland, the political turmoil of the country is echoed in the emotional upheaval in the lives of Jacek Duch and his daughter’s family and illustrated through a perspective that shifts from Jacek to Tomek (later Tomasz) Piekarz, his sister Żanetka, and Piotr Piekarz, their uncle.
Jacek’s perspective provides the frame for the narrative, starting from his unexpected meeting with the daughter he has for years believed dead. Long an undercover agent for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Jacek feels his position in the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB) has become imperiled. In an effort to deflect attention from himself, he has initiated a surveillance campaign spying on the minority Protestant population to jeopardize the growing Solidarność movement. Amy is now an adult and married to Jan Piekarz, son of Tadeusz Piekarz, a Protestant minister who discovered Jacek’s identity during World War II but kept it secret all these years. Because of their religious affiliation, the family has been caught in the SB’s surveillance, and Jacek must destroy the tapes of their conversations that reveal his own identity in a conversation with the “outlaw” Jacek discovers is Piotr Piekarz, Amy’s brother-in-law and former lover. As part of his plan to protect Amy and her family, Jacek decides Piotr, a Solidarność leader and the only person who knows of Jacek’s relationship to Amy once his father, Tadeusz, dies, must be eliminated. As a result of Jacek’s tip to the SB, Piotr is arrested.
After Jacek is nearly arrested by the Americans for an attempted assassination on the life of President Jimmy Carter, he goes into hiding from both the SB and the CIA. He sets himself up in an apartment near Amy and her family in Gdańsk, so he can begin getting to know them, if only from a distance. A chance encounter with her son, Tomek, cements his need to feel close to them.
Tomek and Żanetka reveal the internal life of a family in which the children must grow up too quickly. The story of their uncle Piotr’s wedding and arrest are related through Tomek’s perspective and supplemented by Piotr’s own letters, written to Amy and Jan from prison, in which he reflects on his loveless marriage to Halina and his commitment to the Solidarność cause. As Tomek grows up, his relationship with his parents becomes increasingly strained; he rejects his father, suggesting that Piotr should have been his father instead of Jan.
Żanetka struggles to fit in at school as she grow up, learning from the troubles within her family. Uncle Piotr has been imprisoned for some time; his whereabouts were unknown until one day when Jan discovers where he is being held. Amy sets off to see him, taking Gonia with her. Through Żanetka we learn of four-year-old Gonia’s death from falling down a staircase at the prison during a brief moment when Amy and Piotr are alone and momentarily distracted by a whisper of their former romance. The grief in the family is terrible and shortly compounded by Tomasz’s decision to run away. After an especially brutal argument with his father, Tomasz leaves Gdańsk, hitchhiking to the West and making his way to Berlin, where very quickly he descends to a life of uncertainty, crime, drugs, and desperation on the streets.
Back in Gdańsk, Tomasz’s frantic family begins searching for him. Having formed an unlikely and tenuous friendship with Jacek, Piotr begs him to find Tomasz. As Jacek begins his quest, the Solidarność movement is gaining momentum under the charismatic leadership of Lech Wałęsa. Jacek heads to Berlin, using his CIA credentials to access government records and betraying his existence to an old enemy, Gabi, formerly one of two CIA agents detailed to protect him.
Piotr is released from prison. Jacek finds Tomasz and takes him away from Berlin to begin the painful and horrific process of addiction withdrawal, which they accomplish in an isolated rural cabin. When Tomasz is finally ready, Jacek sends him back to his family.
Jacek gets to Gdańsk first, chased by Gabi, who is intent on killing him for betraying Jurek, another CIA officer, to the SB. Nevertheless, he completes his personal mission to tell Amy who he is. Tomasz follows on the train, discovering the mass milicja waiting to descend on a Solidarność rally. With a new recognition of the significance of freedom and the efforts of the underground, he races to warn his uncle. Piotr initially does not believe him, but the tanks roll in and the milicja begin shooting.
Gabi shoots Jacek. Piotr and Tomasz help him to shelter, but she follows them, threatening all of the family who run in to escape from the snipers. To protect Jacek, Tomasz jumps between him and Gabi. In the chaos that follows, she runs away. Jacek has final words with his family, asking for forgiveness and recognizing in Amy’s friend Ewa the face of his true love, Monika, destroyed by the Soviets during the Cold War.
Christian Themes
Overarching the story of Out of the Red Shadow is the introductory epigram of James 1:17, assuring the people of the beneficent and unchanging nature of God. The book is divided into six parts, each introduced by a biblical epigram that re-creates the rite of the Eucharist as practiced in Reformed Protestantism and that underscores the intertwined nature of the Polish resistance movement and the country’s relationship with religion.
Psalm 80:4-5 introduces part 1 and Jacek’s story. Because of his obligations as a CIA operative working for the SB, he has had to make many regrettable choices and witnessed many horrific things that now, as an old man, he must face. Amy’s sudden appearance prompts him to reflect on all the mistakes and missed opportunities of his life, his own “bread of tears,” that not only affected him but in many cases inflicted tragedy on others during the years of the Cold War in Poland. Retreating to a mountain lodge and isolating himself gives Jacek the opportunity to seek solace and find strength to return to the world. During this time, the Solidarność movement is beginning to emerge, as well, fomented in the people’s protest against postwar Communist oppression.
The taking of the Eucharist is outlined in parts 2 through 4, through Matthew 6:11, 1 Corinthians 10:16, Matthew 4:4, and John 6:51, respectively. In part 2 one reads the prayer for daily sustenance, the daily life and needs of the diverse Piekarz family, and the growing demands of the Solidarność movement. Part 3 concerns the devastating loss of Gonia and the seeming insufficiency of prayer to ameliorate the family’s response to her death. In part 4, Tomasz leaves to seek the materialism of the West, forgetting that “bread alone” is inadequate for life. In part 5, Tomasz’s recovery will admit the “living bread” of Christ that Tomasz and Jacek also find manifested in their encounters with nature.
Closing with Jacek’s framing narrative enables de Graaf to reiterate the constancy of God asserted in the opening epigram. She draws on Psalm 78:2, recalling that even when people act irresponsibly or unfaithfully, God does not desert them. This is effectively underlined when Żanetka’s dying grandmother, the voice of Scripture in the novel, tells her granddaughter that she has an “intercessory heart,” a reminder of the Eucharist as the celebration of Christ’s role as intercessor for the people of the earth.
Source for Further Study
De Graaf, Anne. http://www.annedegraaf.com. The author’s Web site contains biographical information, a list of publications, excerpts, reviews, and a blog.