The Polish writer Zofia Kossak (1889–1968) wrote historical novels with which she tried to overcome the traumas of the 20th century: two wars, the October Revolution, imprisonment in KL Auschwitz and the loss of her homeland. The contributors deal with individual and collective experiences, with human loneliness in the face of the great story, focusing on the prose works and autobiographical notes of the writer who is considered a traditionalist both in terms of narrative style and idea content. However, the interpretations proposed here, based on contemporary literary theories, break with stereotypical thinking and shed new light on Zofia Kossak’s work by drawing attention to what she perceived in her immediate surroundings, what preoccupied her and what is also part of the problems of the 21st century: totalitarianism, loss of homeland, the significance of the past for the present or concern for the environment in the face of necessary industrial development.