The book consists of detailed descriptions of Jerzy Kosinski's childhood. The author quotes respectable weeklies (Polityka) and summarizes interviews with the inhabitants of Dabrowa Rzeczycka, the village in which people risked their lives 24/7 to save the young boy Josek Lewinkopf (whose parents changed the family name to Kosinski).
On p. 133, Siedlecka describes the meeting between Jerzy Kosinski and his childhood acquaintance, Edward Warchol, in whose parents' home the Kosinskis were hiding during the German occupation. Warchol said to Kosinski during that meeting: "Hello. My name is Edward Warchol and I am the son of Andrzej Warchol in whose house you and your parents were hiding during the German occupation of Dabrowa Rzeczycka."
Kosinski's answer? "My parents have died." Warchol and other inhabitants of this Polish village received not a word of thanks from Kosinski for their heroic behavior during the German occupation. Not to speak of an apology for smearing them in a supposedly autobiographical book. Siedlecka's documentation is sterling, and at the end of the book it becomes apparent that it was Kosinski's imagination that created the horrors of The Painted Bird, rather than his childhood memories. The harm Kosinski has done to the simple folks in Dabrowa Rzeczycka is beyond measure.