The books presents the results of Siedlecka's journalistic investigation about Kosiński's life during World War II, which up till then had often been seen as similar to the tragic fate of the protagonist of his well known novel, The Painted Bird.

Siedlecka's found that unlike the protagonist of his novel, Kosiński's life in occupied Poland was relatively uneventful, as he and his family successfully survived the Holocaust while hiding in a Polish village of Dąbrowa Rzeczycka.

Since then her book has elicited mixed reviews, with enduring criticism about her lack of sympathy for Kosiński, counterweighted by praise from those who find value in the fact that Siedlecka unearthed historical truth and debunked the ahistorical theories that The Painted Bird is autobiographical.

She controversially noted that Kosiński's father, Moses Lewinkof, pragmatically collaborated with the occupiers – possibly Germans (Gestapo) and very likely with the Soviets (NKVD); the latter likely resulted in arrest and exile for some of the peasants who helped Kosinski's family survive the war.

[6][8]: 285  James Park Sloan noted that while a significant part of the book is focused on Kosiński's father, Siedlecka's "real scorn, however, is reserved for the son, who turned his back on the family's saviors and vilified them, along with the entire Polish nation, in the eyes of the world".

[8]: 293  Piotr Gursztyn [pl] argued that criticism of Siedlecka represented elitists bias for intellectual Kosiński versus their dislike for "backward Polish peasants".

[10] James Park Sloan noted that upon publication, the book has caused a controversy in Poland, where its initial reception was rather negative among liberal intellectuals, many of whom recalled the inept criticism of The Painted Bird by the communist authorities in the 1960s.

They stress that his The Painted Bird hid any reference to the fact that Kosiński's family survived the war with the help of its neighbours – and then it portrayed many of the same, identifiable individuals (Polish villagers) in as antagonists.

[8]: 292-293  She also wrote that Siedlecka's book was marketed as presenting Kosiński's "true" story, which she considered unnecessary as The Painted Bird is "a fictionalized account of the nightmares of a suffering child", although she acknowledged that "there is evidence that some critics, including Elie Wiesel, have read it as autobiographical".