The three families (Buk, Bukowski and Lubonski) are fictional, as are the other characters and the ancestral home of all the families, Bukowo, where much of the action takes place. The book, written in an episodic format, tells the story of three families and the many generations of each family throughout the history of Poland. He writes: 'Normally, as I have done in my other novels, I would list their names, their impressive occupations, their achievements in research and scholarship, but I cannot ascertain whether in the present climate this would hurt or help them.' Like Michener's other works, he includes an acknowledgments section at the beginning of the book however due to the political turmoil in Poland at the time, Michener decided not to include the names of the people he traveled with for fear of persecutions against them. He began writing the book in 1979 and it was published four years later. Following this, Michener made several trips back to Poland and conducted extensive study of Poland's history and culture. He was offered support to go anywhere in the world and Michener decided to make the trip to Poland. Michener was hired by a television company to travel to a foreign country to shoot a documentary. Despite their drastically different social standings, members of the families interact frequently throughout the generations, sometimes as allies and sometimes as adversaries. The Lubonski family is one of the princely houses of Poland, its wealthy patriarchs generally ruling over their region the Bukowski family are petty nobles, with a well-known and respected name but typically little money and the Buk family are impoverished peasants. Michener and published in 1983 detailing the times and tribulations of three interconnected Polish families (the Lubonski family, the Bukowski family, and the Buk family) across eight centuries, ending in the then-present day (1981).

Poland is a historical novel written by James A.

The source james michener sparknotes