Bella Ciao authored by Piotr Siemion receives stellar literary review by Polityka

Rimon attorney, Piotr Siemion, recently authored the novel, “Bella, ciao” published by Wydawnictwo Filtry. The fiction novel which is set in a Russia-Poland conflict zone has received a stellar five out of six-star review from Polish news weekly, Polityka.

Justyna Sobolewska of Polityka (Polityka Weekly no 20, 2022) commented on the novel:

“This novel was completed before the Ukrainian war, but its author Piotr Siemion (who also penned such novels as “Low Meadows” and “Finimondo”) clearly was way ahead of his time. Admittedly, at first all indications in the book point towards WWII in the Pomorze seaside district, sometime in the 1940s, but the novel’s reality soon becomes a universe of its own. A small guerilla detachment (a “pocket army” for its commander, Col. Szest) is roaming the back-country forests, more or less without aim. It is not entirely clear who’s fighting whom: we see conflicted Polish factions, some local Germans, as well as some looting Russian troops. Same as today, in a way. The reasons for all this commotion are not clear and, while the characters keep using words like “honor” and “homeland”, they keep on killing others, just because they can. Their war is a “march through a meat grinder”, in Siemion’s convincing vision. Nor is it a male-only game: one of the fighters is a young girl, Spinka, regretful and bitter after having been attracted by the war’s fake splendor. She’s seeing clearly now that their lot is not any kind of “honor” but rather “much salt in the wounds, a boot into the groin, a shot of fear into the heart.” Siemion’s novel is perfectly knit, exquisitely suspenseful, rushing forward only to slow down when needed. The author is a master stylist; he likes sly quotations and keeps on delivering his own memorable sentences, such as: “The hardest thing to swallow is when a fresh new death overwhelms our choking senses. But decay with its rot is a very different thing: a series of languid, phased passages, slowly bringing us comfort and peace.” All these realities are rendered with utmost, artful precision, so that we can see, hear, and even smell them, complete with their odor of blood, sweat, and stink. While Siemion’s novel leads the reader deep into the war’s assembled horrors, there remains in it some hope for its characters and their world. At all times, the reader’s emotions are artfully kept in check”.

Access the novel here: Bella, ciao – Wydawnictwo Filtry

Read Piotr Siemion’s artistic bio here: Piotr Siemion – Biography | Artist | Culture.pl

Piotr Siemion is a corporate attorney in the firm’s Warsaw office. Mr. Siemion has over two decades of transactional experience, specifically in the areas of corporate law, corporate governance, regulatory and compliance, industrial restructuring, mergers & acquisitions, capital markets, and private equity.  Mr. Siemion has significant experience leading complex cross-border projects, particularly in the energy sector.  Mr. Siemion is a U.S. attorney, admitted to the New York bar, and has managed legal projects in the United States, Poland, Central Europe, Canada and Israel. He has significant experience within top-tier Central European industrial companies. Piotr has also authored several novels. On practicing with Rimon, Mr. Siemion said:  “At Rimon, you can be all you are.”