The Things We Cannot Say

If The Things We Cannot Say is approached as a coming-of-age novel, Alina Dziak is its central character. She is a character of great heart. From a shallow and selfish young girl, Alina evolves into a complex and heroic woman with an independent spirit and an extraordinary capacity for courageous and selfless actions. In the beginning, the 15-year-old Alina is the youngest child on a farm where she is expected to do little hard labor and so has not yet truly grown up. Her adolescent world is structured entirely around her love of Tomasz Slaski. She says, without irony, that her life is a fairy tale “filled with magic” (22). During the Nazi occupation, Alina matures into a young woman able to endure hardship, handle profound disappointments, and manage deep anxieties and uncertainties.

Her love becomes not the stuff of pixie-dusted fairy tales but a reason to live, a reason to give, a reason to hope. When Tomasz switches identities with Saul Weiss and asks Alina to deliver the film cartridge, she agrees even though the risky mission compels her to confront and overcome her misgivings. When she cradles the Weiss baby, she realizes in a shattering