Shtetl reconstructs the lost world of Polish Jewry up until its final days. She explores its rich culture and institutions and looks at the forms of Polish-Jewish coexistence during several centuries, the shades of prejudice and tolerance, and the phases of conflict and comity.

By probing the deep ambivalences that colored relations between Poles and Jews on the eve of World War II, she throws new light on the motives that influenced Christian villagers' decisions to rescue or betray their Jewish neighbors when the Nazis invaded. As an emigrant from Poland, Hoffman brings a penetrating intelligence and compassionate eye to a history that is fraught with intensely private emotions and profound implications for humanity.