VAL K., IMMIGRANT

Step into the last year of Val Karnowski's life in occupied Poland -when the iron grip of Prussian rule leaves no young man untouched. Drafted into the Prussian army for the 3rd time, Val faces serving once again in a foreign uniform, fighting in a war that is not his own: the Franco-Prussian War. But this time, he chooses a different path. He seizes an opportunity, and deserts.

Val's flight takes him into the heart of the War. In France, he aligns himself with guerillas who harry the invading Germans at every turn. Alongside Lt. Ernest Lipowski, the hero of Châteaudun, Val learns the art of unconventional warfare-and what it means to fight for a cause more truly is his own. Follow him through the great battles of the war, thru the mud, hearing the cannon's roar, and witnessing the courage of those resisting one of Europe's most formidable army. Commiserate with his heart-rending diary entries from the trenches.

Experience the chaos of the Paris Commune, led by the indomitable Polish General Jaroslaw Dabrowski, as revolution shakes the heart of France.

Be present at the proclamation of the German Empire in the glittering Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Learn about the shocking reprisals and crushing indemnities imposed on defeated France, and the heroism of innocent people brutalized by Otto von Bismarck's savage war machine. Thru newspaper clippings woven into the narrative, see the war thru contemporary eyes. Be present at Bismarck's visitations from Satan, who gives him examples of tyrants from history to imitate.

Val's story doesn't end in France. As the guns fall silent, he must make his way back to Poland, still under Prussian control. Every step is dangerous. If discovered, the punishment for one who fought for the enemy would be fatal. Yet Val returns, navigating suspicion and scrutiny with a cunning born of necessity.

Letters from Chicago's Polish immigrants urge Val to join them there. Glimpse what Chicago was like in the year before his arrival: what he was inserting himself into. Read newspaper account of the Great Conflagration of 1871, and its rebuilding - his opportunity to earn a living and make a new life.

Read about the founding and growth of St. Stanislaus Kostka parish, the mother church of Chicago's north-side Polonia, to which so many tracing their roots eventually lead back.

Travel with Val on a grueling 52-day voyage across the storm-tossed North Atlantic in November 1871, aboard a barque crammed with 217 other hopeful Poles, Kashubes and Germans. Experience the daily hardships, the camaraderie, and the uncertainty of immigrant life at sea. Arrive at Castle Garden in New York, and learn how newcomers were processed before Ellis Island existed.

Though a work of fiction, this book is rich with verifiable history-events, personalities, and details carefully drawn from authentic records, eyewitness accounts, and period newspapers. It is both a compelling adventure and an education in the world of the 1870s. For readers of historical fiction, lovers of European and Chicago history, and anyone with a personal or genealogical connection to Poland, France, or America's immigrant story, this book offers a rare and vivid journey. From the battlefields of France to the immigrant wards of Chicago, from Versailles to Vatican City, follow Val Karnowski's extraordinary odyssey-and discover a story that is as enlightening as it is unforgettable.

Gerald was born in 1937 in Chicago. As a child he was an avid reader of How to Draw books. One day at age 11 he wandered over to the Grown-up Books section of the public library and pulled down a picture-book of gothic cathedrals. He fell in love with their beauty. His mother used to give him the white paper in which the butcher had wrapped meat. Finding a large piece of plywood, he became "the only kid on his block" who used to sketch up gothic cathedral façades. He began studying Architecture in 1955 and worked his way thru college, earning a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Illinois in 1966. He is proud to say that he never took a penny of student loans. He received an Illinois license in 1972. Sometime after that he began conducting genealogical research on his ancestors. He speaks Polish, German, and Spanish to some extent. He has a gift for language.
Gerald has undergone three intensifications of faith in his life: one at age fourteen, when, as a child prodigy he became the object of three years of abuse by his classmates. He endured and graduated. The second was at age twenty-two, when it appeared he was about to die. He told himself, "If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna go out in a blaze of glory", and joined volunteer groups that kept him active every night of the week. The third was in 1982, when a concurrence of events, including the loss of a job, left him "down and out", and God gave him a new image of Himself as a very loving Father.
After this last intensification in 1982 began to feel the call to do something more directly to promote Jesus' kingdom on earth. He began to explore religious life. It saddened him to see the majority of adult Catholics coasting thru life on a few simplistic ideas that they picked up in early life. In 1992 he sold a condo in Chicago and used the money from the sale for education. He entered Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio in September, 1992. Once there he responded to a call by Fr. Michael Scanlon TOR and entered Holy Apostles Seminary for older men in Cromwell, CT. in fall, 1993. He spent 3 months doing door-to-door evangelization in Ceres and Modesto, CA in summer, 1994 while on assignment at St. Jude's parish, Ceres. He concluded that religious life was not for him and returned to Franciscan U. and earned a Master of Arts degree in Theology and Christian Ministry in 1996.
Unable to find work with his degree, and running out of money, he found a job as an archit...