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Escape to Life (Jotolusa $19.95, 604-224-6366)
In Jan Solecki's first novel, Escape to Life (Jotolusa $19.95, 604-224-6366), Canadian orphans Ko-lai and Ta-li help patriotic guerillas liberate 1,000 Chinese prisoners from a Japanese death camp in the 1930s.
"The crippled and amputees came next. Those who had heavy casts were placed on carts; others walked, some holding onto carts. In spite of their miserable plight, a few appeared cheerful. Then came the smallest group, the plague-infected men who had suffered heavy losses from sickness and from being machine-gunned by their doctors.";
Born in Inner Mongolia, Solecki makes clear on the book jacket that, in fact, no one ever escaped from the hideous camps where captives were guinea pigs for experiments for biological warfare.
Solecki served in the British forces as a gunner and was held as a POW in Shamshuipo camp. After graduating from the London School of Economics, he immigrated to Vancouver in 1959. From 1964 to 1984 he taught at UBC, specializing in the economies of Russia and China. Of Polish-Russian descent, he speaks Polish and Russian and has knowledge of three other languages. He lives in North Vancouver.
[BCBW SUMMER 1999]
"The crippled and amputees came next. Those who had heavy casts were placed on carts; others walked, some holding onto carts. In spite of their miserable plight, a few appeared cheerful. Then came the smallest group, the plague-infected men who had suffered heavy losses from sickness and from being machine-gunned by their doctors.";
Born in Inner Mongolia, Solecki makes clear on the book jacket that, in fact, no one ever escaped from the hideous camps where captives were guinea pigs for experiments for biological warfare.
Solecki served in the British forces as a gunner and was held as a POW in Shamshuipo camp. After graduating from the London School of Economics, he immigrated to Vancouver in 1959. From 1964 to 1984 he taught at UBC, specializing in the economies of Russia and China. Of Polish-Russian descent, he speaks Polish and Russian and has knowledge of three other languages. He lives in North Vancouver.
[BCBW SUMMER 1999]
Submitted on July 9, 2003 in By David.
