In this essay, Gabrielle Migdalski juxtaposes fiction and non-fiction sources that focus on Poland’s transition from a controlled to a market economy. As she demonstrates in her essay, the sources not only complement each other, they also collaborate to create a story of much richer hue and intensity than if each had been considered on its own. Migdalski structures her essay to focus on each work in turn. Naomi Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine is examined first, with an emphasis on the story largely presented through statistics, but also contextualized by other supporting sources. Migdalski critiques Klein’s approach as lacking balance. Nonetheless, she acknowledges the strong points of Klein’s argument before further supporting her portrayal of post-Communist Poland through the novel Nine by Andrzej Stasiuk. The novelistic imagery illuminates Klein’s argument, providing the sensibility that is often missing in non-fiction accounts. By considering how these sources work together, Migdalski creates a cross-disciplinary conversation that adds to our understanding of this period of uneasy transition.