Story of a Secret State My Report to the World Penguin Modern Classics

'Stands in the absolute first rank of books about the resistance in World War II. If you wish to read about a man more courageous and honourable than Jan Karski, I would have no idea who to recommend' Alan Furst

It is 1939. Jan Karski, a brilliant young Polish student, enjoys a life of parties and pleasure. Then war breaks out and his familiar world is destroyed. Now he must live under a new identity, in the resistance. And, in a secret mission that could change the course of the war, he must risk his own life to try and save those of millions.

'Insistently asks the question: What would you do? Would you fight, or acquiesce, or collaborate? ... Karski was deeply patriotic and ludicrously brave ... an astonishing testament of survival' Ben Macintyre

'Karski's adventures are worthy of the wildest spy thriller' Daily Telegraph

'This eye-witness testimony is imbued with a passion that subsequent memoirs can rarely match' Financial Times

'Deeply moving' Daily Mail

'Reads like the screenplay to an incredibly exciting war movie - but it is all true' Andrew Roberts