Frankfurt Frankfurt 2011 - Znak Rights

Frankfurt 2011

RIGHTS DEPARTMENT: 

www.znak-rights.com 

RIGHTS DIRECTOR: 

Anna Rucińska 

rucinska@znak.com.pl 

Direct tel.: 

(+48) 12 61 99 506 About 

2 

http://www.znak-rights.com 

A GOOD IDEA 

Znak was founded 

in 1959 in answer to 

a call from the weekly 

newspaper Tygodnik 

Powszechny to preserve 

in book form the work 

of those writing for it 

and for the monthly 

Znak. Some 900 people 

responded to the appeal, 

and although they could 

not be sure they were 

supporting an initiative 

that would last, they 

thought it a good idea. 

us 

Despite all sorts of 

obstacles, including 

censorship, political 

upheavals and the tough 

demands of capitalism, 

Znak is doing well on the 

publishing market and is 

achieving success. More 

than just a publishing 

house, it also provides 

a forum for important 

debate, and thus it makes 

a major contribution to 

Polish culture. In our 

publishing work we meet 

a wide range of needs, 

producing publications 

that interpret the world, 

mankind, history and 

the modern era, through 

to top-quality fi ction 

and non-fi ction, as well 

as light reading and 

books for the youngest 

generation. After all, 

Znak is a young company, 

one year younger than 

Paddington Bear, and 

the same age as Le Petit 

Nicolas.

Contents 

9 Marek Krajewski 

The Erinyes 

10 Marek Krajewski 

Charon’s Numbers 

11 Kazimierz Kutz 

The Fifth Part of the World 

12 Wiesław Myśliwski 

The Horizon 


A Treatise on Bean-Shelling 


Stone upon Stone 

14 Hubert Klimko-Dobrzaniecki 

15 Hubert Klimko-Dobrzaniecki 

Bornholm, Bornholm 

16 Paweł Huelle 


Who Was David Weiser? 


Cold Sea Tales 


The Last Supper 


Stories for a Time of Relocation 


Mercedes-Benz 


Castorp 

21 Antoni Libera 

Madame 

21 Antoni Libera 

Godot and His Shadow 

22 Maria Nurowska 


Your Name 


Return to Lvov 


Maidens and Widows, vol.1-3 


The Lover 


Russian Lover 


German Dance 


Two Loves 


To Feed the Wolves 


46 Aleksandra Mizielińska, 

Requiem for a Wolf 

Daniel Mizieliński 


Who Eats Whom 

The Moon over Zakopane 

47 Andrzej Maleszka 


Magic Tree. Tale 1. The Red Chair 

Love Letters 

48 Andrzej Maleszka 


Magic Tree. Tale 2. The Mystery 

Tango for Three 

of a Bridge 


49 Michał Rusinek 

The Case of Nina S. 

Little Chopin 


50 Joanna Olech 

Spanish Eyes 

Pompom’s Children 



Anna’s Choice 

Pompom the Sink Dragon 


52 Marcin Brykczyński 

My Friend the Traitor 

Marta Ignerska 

32 Andrzej Franaszek 


Miłosz. A Biography 

The Pink Piglet 

33 Travels with Ryszard Kapuściński 

Thirteen Translators Tell Their Stories 

33 Travels with Ryszard Kapuściński, 

part 2. 

The Tales of Fourteen Translators 

34 Ryszard Kapuściński 

A Reporter: Self-portrait 

3 

34 Ryszard Kapuściński 

The Rapid Current of History. 

Writings on the 20th and 21st Centuries 

35 Beata Nowacka, 

Zygmunt Ziątek 

Ryszard Kapuściński. A Writer’s Biography 

36 Andrzej Szczeklik 

Catharsis 

37 Andrzej Szczeklik 

Kore 

38 Małgorzata Szejnert 

The Black Garden 

39 Małgorzata Szejnert 

Gateway Island 

40 Karolina Lanckorońska 

41 Karolina Lanckorońska 

Those Who Trespass Against Us 

42 Patrycja Bukalska 

and Stanisław Aronson 

Years of Turmoil 

43 Fr. Michał Heller 

The Philosophy of Nature: A Historical Sketch 

45 Przemysław Wechterowicz, 


Great Dreams 

http://www.znak-rights.com

4 


Featured titles 

FICTION 

NON-FICTION 

CHILDREN’S 

Marek Krajewski 

Charon’s numbers 

Hubert Klimko-Dobrzaniecki 


Maria Nurowska 


Andrzej Franaszek 


Aleksandra Mizielińska 


Who Eats Whom 

5 


p// g

Authors list 

FICTION 

Margaret Atwood 

John Banville 

Heinrich Böll 

Candace Bushnell 

Albert Camus 

Angela Carter 

J.M. Coetzee 

Joseph Conrad 

Junot Díaz 

Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

Karin Fossum 

Bohumil Hrabal 

Paweł Huelle 

Ismail Kadare 


Kazimierz Kutz 

James Joyce 

Jhumpa Lahiri 

Antoni Libera 

Ian McEwan 

Mario Vargas Llosa 

Richard Lourie 

Yann Martel 

Eduardo Mendoza 

Zbigniew Mentzel 

Wiesław Myśliwski 

Joyce Carol Oates 

Victor Pelevin 

Ernesto Sabato 

Lydie Salvayre 

Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt 

Zadie Smith 

Koji Suzuki 

Tatyana Tolstaya 

Dubravka Ugresič 

Jeanette Winterson 

Virginia Woolf 


POETRY Ryszard Kapuściński THEOLOGY 

Joseph Brodsky 

Robert Hass 

Seamus Heaney 

Edward Hirsch 

Jane Hirshfi eld 

Yusef Komunyakaa 

Denise Levertov 

Czesław Miłosz 

Anna Piwkowska 

Jacek Podsiadło 

Tomasz Różycki 

Wisława Szymborska 

Karol Wojtyła 

Ko Un 

Adam Zagajewski 

NON-FICTION 

Chris Anderson 

Timothy Garton Ash 

Stanisław Barańczak 

Władysław Bartoszewski 

Neal Bascomb 

Antony Beevor 

Samuel Beckett 

Joseph Brodsky 

Józef Czapski 

Norman Davies 

Umberto Eco 

Anne Fadiman 

Anne Frank 

Francis Fukuyama 

Atul Gawande 

Jan Garavaglia 

Malcolm Gladwell 

Jan T. Gross 

Richard Hammond 

Ian Kershaw 

Martin Lindstrom 

Anna Politkovskaya 

Mary Roach 

Robert Service 

E. Benjamin Skinner 

Timothy Snyder 

Andrzej Szczeklik 

Małgorzata Szejnert 

Jürgen Thorwald 

Andrzej Wajda 

PHILOSOPHY 

Saint Thomas Aquinas 

Saint Augustine 

Henri Bergson 

Martin Buber 

Etienne Gilson 

Georg W. F. Hegel 

Martin Heidegger 

Michał Heller 

Karl Jaspers 

Immanuel Kant 

Leszek Kołakowski 

Emmanuel Lévinas 

Krzysztof Michalski 

Karl Popper 

Franz Rosenzweig 

Barbara Skarga 

Richard Swinburne 

Xavier Tilliette 

Józef Tischner 

Claude Tresmontant 

Bernhard Welte 

Yves Congar 

Louis Dupré 

Paul Evdokimov 

Romano Guardini 

René Laurentin 

Henri de Lubac 

Richard Niebuhr 

Pope Benedict XVI 

Pope John Paul II 

Joseph Ratzinger 

Max Thurian 

CHILDREN’S BOOKS 

J.M. Barrie 

Michael Bond 

F.C. Boyce 

Christianna Brand 

Michael Ende 

Ted Hughes 

John Green 

Anthony Horowitz 

Janosch 

Barry Jonsberg 

Paul McCartney 

Geraldine McCaughrean 

Philip Pullman 

Sempé & Goscinny 

Alex Shearer 

Francesca Simon 

Dubravka Ugresič

Fiction 7 


About the author: 

Marek Krajewski (b. 1966) 

was for many years a classics 

lecturer at the University of 

Wroclaw but a few years ago 

he quit lecturing in favour of 

writing literary thrillers. He 

is the author of a best-selling 

series of novels featuring 

Kriminalabtailung Direktor 

Eberhard Mock and inspector 

Edward Popielski. Krajewski’s 

debut Śmierć w Breslau 

(Death in Breslau) appeared 

in 1999. This one and the 

subsequent novels from the 

Breslau series have been 

published in 12 countries and 

the rights to the series have 

been sold to 18 countries. 

Marek Krajewski’s major 

awards include: Polityka’s 

Passport, an award given to 

the author of the best literary 

achievement in a certain year, 

the High 8Calibre 

Award for 

the best crime novel of the 

year and the Wroclaw Mayor 

Award. 

He lives in Wroclaw and 

teaches creative writing in 

Krakow. 



The Erinyes 

Praise for Marek Krajewski’s previous novels: 

“Krajewski has Mankell’s 

sharp eye for detail, 

but he has, too, a more 

sophisticated frame 

of reference that may 

intrigue fans of Umberto 

Eco and Boris Akunin... 

[an] erudite novel... The 

atmosphere of the novel 

is claustrophobic... Death 

in Breslau is a stylish, 

intelligent and original 

addition to the genre.” 

Financial Times 

FICTION 

About The Erinyes: 

The linchpin of Marek 

Krajewski’s new novel is 

a meeting that although 

specious, is also relevant 

to the plot, between a well 

preserved old lady and 

a very elderly gent who 

“stinks like a corpse” – as 

he himself puts it – on 

the Breslau Marketplace. 

This scene takes place in 

modern times, on a warm 

summer morning in 2008. 

The gentleman tells the 

lady a story in which he 

features as the hero. 

And so we shift to Lwow 

on the eve of the Second 

World War and at once we 

get a sense of déjà vu, as 

the events described seem 

somehow familiar. 

“The city of Breslau (today’s 

Wroclaw) is as much 

a character in this thriller 

as the parade of gothic 

loons that inhabit it.” 

Daily Telegraph 

“Part of the black magic 

in this book is the 

reimagination of what 

is now the Polish city of 

Wroclaw as it was for 700 

years, the German city of 

Breslau.” 

The Times 

In fact, it is exactly the 

same day, the very same 

courtyard, the same grisly 

sight, and the same hideous 

murder we witnessed in 

Krajewski’s previous book, 

The Minotaur’s Head. The 

broken, crushed, crippled 

body of three-year-old 

Henio Pytka is found by 

chance in a courtyard privy. 

This time further events will 

develop around this murder. 

Solving the riddle of this 

despicable offence can only 

be tackled by one man – 

Commissioner Edward 

Popielski. 

It will soon transpire that 

the child’s death and its 

perpetrator are far closer to 

Popielski than might have 

“Krajewski’s vision of 

Breslau in 1933... is 

reminiscent of Georg 

Grosz... Death in Breslau 

isn’t just an exciting 

mystery, it’s the story 

of a lost Fatherland... 

Wonderful.” 

The Guardian 

seemed possible, and that 

is because the degenerate 

who committed this act 

deserving the intervention 

of the Erinyes themselves, 

is targeting the youngest 

and most innocent citizens 

of Lwow. And besides 

the victim, Henio Pytka, 

these include Popelski’s 

own eighteen-month-old 

grandson, Jerzyk. 

So the hunt for the 

evildoer begins. Across 

the cobblestones of Lwow, 

picking up false leads and 

letting them fool him, the 

Commissioner conducts 

an inquiry that leads to at 

least one misfortune along 

the way, the emotional 

breakdown of some and 

RIGHTS SOLD: 

Ukraine (Urbino) 

9 

then others, and fi nally 

an error pregnant with 

consequences of the most 

incredible kind. As ever, 

the culprit will be found, 

caught and punished, 

but in this case it will be 

an exceptionally Pyrrhic 

victory. The price that will 

have to be paid for it will 

be far higher than that 

of a cup of coffee at the 

smartest café on Hetman’s 

Embankment. Alecto, 

Tisiphone and Megaera – 

the Erinyes, present 

Popielski and his family 

with a very expensive bill. 

There’s a corpse-like smell 

in the air. 


RIGHTS SOLD: 

Ukraine (Urbino) 

10 


Praise for Marek Krajewski’s previous novels: 

“Krajewski has Mankell’s 

sharp eye for detail, 

but he has, too, a more 

sophisticated frame 

of reference that may 

intrigue fans of Umberto 

Eco and Boris Akunin... 

[an] erudite novel... The 

atmosphere of the novel 

is claustrophobic... Death 

in Breslau is a stylish, 

intelligent and original 

addition to the genre.” 

Financial Times 

About Charon’s Numbers: 

May 1929. Lviv. Comissioner 

Edward Popielski was 

thrown out of police for 

insubordination. Finally, he 

has enough time for solving 

equations and… love. It is 

the beautiful Renata who 

talks him into undertaking 

a risky job that soon lands 

him in trouble. An Lviv 

is once again is unquiet. 

One brutal murder after 

“The city of Breslau (today’s 

Wroclaw) is as much 

a character in this thriller 

as the parade of gothic 

loons that inhabit it.” 

Daily Telegraph 

“Part of the black magic 

in this book is the 

reimagination of what 

is now the Polish city of 

Wroclaw as it was for 700 

years, the German city of 

Breslau.” 

The Times 

another. And only the police 

know what is written in 

a mysterious letter from the 

murderer. 

In Charon’s Numbers, 

Popielski has a chance to 

change his life – get back to 

the police and start a family 

with a beloved woman. 

But love is blind, just like 

justice… 


Charon’s Numbers 

“Krajewski’s vision of 

Breslau in 1933... is 

reminiscent of Georg 

Grosz... Death in Breslau 

isn’t just an exciting 

mystery, it’s the story 

of a lost Fatherland... 

Wonderful.” 

The Guardian 

FICTION

Kazimierz Kutz 

The Fifth Part of the World 


Kazimierz Kutz was born 

in 1929 in Szopienice, 

Upper Silesia. He is one 

of the most famous Polish 

fi lm and theatre directors 

and was engaged in the 

formation of the most 

important movements in 

the Polish cinema such as 

nouvelle vague polonaise 

or moral anxiety cinema. 

In his fi lms he is always 

uncompromising and 

FICTION 

About: 

Polish Silesia, the fi fth part 

of the world, is a place 

where borders disappear 

and history plays with 

people and nationalities. 

It is not possible to close 

this place within a rigid 

framework or to understand 

it from the beginning to 

the end. All one can do is 

to discover it slowly, like 

a kaleidoscope image made 

of a thousand amusing, 

fascinating and mysterious 

stories. 

direct, he likes to portray 

the beauty of life and the 

dilemmas of simple people. 

Kutz received several 

important prizes both in 

Poland and abroad. In 

1999 the readers of the 

most popular Polish daily, 

Gazeta Wyborcza, granted 

Kutz the title of the most 

famous living Silesian of 

the 20th century. In 2006 

the Polish, German and 

It took Kazimierz Kutz 

several years to write his 

fi rst novel. He listened 

to local anecdotes and 

family epics, which allowed 

him to create a colourful 

multigenerational 

panorama of Silesia, 

a land somewhere on the 

border of Poland, Czech 

Republic and Germany. Kutz 

shows Silesia through the 

memories of a man who is 

trying to solve some family 

mystery from the past. 

Both the author and the 

main character are trying 

French LGBT organizations 

awarded him the Tolerance 

Prize in recognition of 

his work in the fi eld of 

antidiscrimination of 

homosexual people. 

Since 1997 Kazimierz 

Kutz has been involved 

in the Polish political life 

and at the moment he is 

an MP representing the 

central liberal Platforma 

Obywatelska. 

to fi nd the right language, 

which would help them 

understand the changes 

brought by the passage of 

time and for that means 

they use Polish and the 

Silesian dialect. 

Kutz is a master storyteller 

and his tales, both funny 

and terrifying, portray 

a whole spectrum of 

characters who look for 

their place in the world: 

they contend with their 

fate, fi ght and emigrate, 

philosophise or take life 

lightly. 

RIGHTS AVAILABLE: 

World 

11 


Fot. Bożydar Pająk

12 


World 



About: 


The Horizon 

Wiesław Myśliwski is the author of novels and plays 

which are usually discussed in the context of “peasant 

literature”, dealing with the problems of the identities of 

villages and their inhabitants in times of historical change. 

However, his work transcends this literary category thanks 

to its philosophical and anthropological importance. 

He is the author of, among others, the novel Naked Orchard 

(1967), the play The Steward (1978) and the novel The 

Palace (1970). Myśliwski’s broadest epic of the peasant 

fate is the novel Stone upon Stone (1984), a masterpiece of 

post-war Polish literature, the apotheosis of the peasant 

tradition. 

FICTION 

This is a new edition of one of the most important novels 

of the last decade. It won the 1997 Nike Literary Prize for 

the best book of the year. The novel is set in a provincial 

world, seen through the eyes of an adolescent boy. 

The plot, the protagonists and the events in this novel are 

like the reality that surrounds us – not fully transparent 

and explainable, demanding to pay close attention, and 

to consider our inner sense and the consequences of our 

actions. 

Jerzy Jarzębski



About: 

In a monologue to his 

mysterious visitor, the 

protagonist of Myśliwski’s 

novel sums up his whole 

life in one day, as he shells 

beans. The intricately 

crafted story with its 

varying temporal planes 

offers an insight into hidden 

senses of human destiny, 

the relation of chance and 

fate, the difference between 

the authentic and the sham, 

or normality and madness. 

The great historical 

fresco encompasses the 

Winner of the 2006 Nike Literary Prize. 

FICTION 


Stone upon Stone 

About : 

protagonist’s childhood 

marred by the trauma 

of war, his youth with its 

delusions and lies, and the 

everyday life in a country 

on which “the best system 

in the world” is imposed, 

the ensuing Wander – and 

Bildungsjahre, a stint of 

earning a living abroad, and 

fi nally the time of summing 

up the bitter knowledge, the 

harvest of a long life. 


is not only a huge epic 

panorama, but fi rst 

First published in 1984 Stone upon Stone is Myśliwski’s 

broadest epic (1984), a masterpiece of postwar Polish 

literature, the apotheosis of the peasant tradition. 

and foremost a great 

metaphysical novel. Probing 

into the Mystery, posing 

fundamental existential 

questions, tapping the wall 

of darkness, Myśliwski 

offers no easy answers 

or cheap consolations. 

He never deceives us 

that the Mystery can be 

known; on the contrary, he 

insists on the need to ask 

the questions again and 

again despite the acute 

awareness that nothing but 

darkness lies ahead. 

RIGHTS SOLD: 

France (Actes Sud) 

Italy (Alberto Gaffi Editore) 

Israel (Kinneret Zmora) 

Lithuania (Mintis) 

USA (Archipelago) 

Holland (Querido) 

Russia (Limbus) 

Slovakia (Kalligram) 

Czech R. (Havran) 

Spain (451 Editores) 

13 

RIGHTS SOLD: 

USA (Archipelago) 

Holland (Querido) 

Spain (451 Editores) 


Fot. Bożydar Pająk 

14 





(b. 1967) studied theology, 

philosophy as well as 

Icelandic language and 

literature. He wrote seven 

books (two collections of 

his poetry have appeared in 

Icelandic). For over 10 years 

he studied and worked in 

Reykjavik (including work 

in a psychiatric hospital and 

an old people’s home). He 

moved to Vienna in 2007. 

Klimko-Dobrzaniecki 

published a collection 

of stories Stacja Bielawa 

Zachodnia (Bielawa 

Zachodnia Station) in 2003, 

reprinted as Wariat (Madman) 

in 2007. He earned his fame 

with a quasi-novel consisting 

of two novellas, Dom 

Róży. Krýsuvík (The House of 

Róża. Krýsuvík), shortlisted 

for Poland’s most prestigious 

literary prize, the Nike 

Literary Prize. In 2007 

Klimko published two 

novels, Kołysanka dla 

wisielca (Lullaby for the 

Hanged Man) and Raz. Dwa. 

Trzy (One. Two. Three). Also 

in 2007 he was shortlisted 

for the weekly Polityka’s 

prize for the most original 

young Polish artists. 

His life story is a ready- 

-made fi lm script. He 

is a traveller, living in 

chilly Poland and even 

chillier Iceland, and also 

a theologian, philosopher 

and specialist in Icelandic 

philology. Based in Vienna, 

he travels all around 

Europe and is a sharp 

observer of his native 

Poland. To date his books 

have been published in 

Italy, France and Bulgaria, 

immediately winning 

both critical approval and 

readers’ appreciation.



About: 

Two narrations, two stories 

connected by accident or 

fate. The characters of 

Dobrzaniecki’s latest novel 

live in the state of constant 

tension. They fi ght – their 

instincts, desires, and 

their emotions. They fi ght 

for dignity and the right to 

decide about the course of 

their lives. Both heroes of 

the novel are united by the 

same desire, articulated 

repeatedly by different 

voices. 

The fi rst hero is Horst 

Bartlik – biology teacher, 

FICTION 

his former self-confi dence 

and masculinity. He did 

not expect war to give him 

a chance to love again. 

Bartlik’s story is interrupted 

by a story of a young man, 

whose only listener is his 

mother in a coma. She is 

the at the same time the 

object of her son’s love 

and hatred. He tells her 

his whole life because her 

expectations were always 

overwhelming him, and 

only now he has a chance to 

articulate that. It was hard 

for him to become a man, 

with her overprotectiveness 

husband, father of two 

children. Unfortunately, he 

is unable to be happy. All his 

small and big yearnings are 

suppressed by his wife, who 

also begins to be sexually 

frigid, which frustrates 

Horst immensely. He begins 

to feel true disgust towards 

his own wife, he becomes 

more and more depressed 

by the idea that the only 

thing that keeps them 

together are the children. 

They act out their miserable 

roles for them, but Horst 

has more and more 

and with no role model – 

she never allowed him 

to meet his father. Her 

personality infl uenced his 

whole life, diffi cult as it was. 

The amount of defeats and 

miseries he experienced is 

simply horrifying. 

There is something 

fascinating in this novel. 

Perhaps it is a unique 

austerity, brought to 

literature only by men. 

First of all – a tragedy of 

people so deeply wounded 

that they are unable to be 

happy. Their struggles are 

like a training ground full 

diffi culties with hiding signs 

of rebellion. He escapes to 

a new place which reminds 

him of his childhood. He 

wants to forget for at least 

a moment, to encounter 

something other than 

frigidity. He waits only for 

an opportunity to escape, 

but fate faces him with 

another challenge, World 

War Two, even though he 

already fi ghts in a private 

war at home with his 

wife. Directed to the base 

at Bornholm, he slowly 

awakens to life, regains 

of the worst obstacles – 

people who hurt them. And 

each hurt leaves a deep 

mark they have to learn 

to live with. They fall, they 

rise. Endlessly, for the fi ght 

continues. 

Bornholm, Bornholm is 

a moving depiction of 

loneliness and internal fi ght 

written by theauthor who 

tells the most important 

truths in a style balancing 

on the verge of seriousness 

and joke. Dobrzaniecki 

creates a world which we 

observe with a smile or 

disbelief. 


World 

15 


Paweł Huelle 


Paweł Huelle is a novelist and poet. 

He was born in Gdansk in 1957 and 

graduated in Polish Philology at the 

University of Gdansk. He worked 

as a university lecturer, journalist 

and director of the Gdansk Polish 

Television Centre. Honoured with 

many prestigious literary awards, 

Huelle is one of the most successful 

contemporary Polish writers. 

His fi rst novel Who Was David Weiser 

(1987) was hailed by the critics as “the 

book of the decade,” “a masterpiece” 

and “a literary triumph” and has 

been published in Germany, Spain, 

France and Finland. It is a story 

of a mysterious disappearance of 

a Jewish boy during his summer 

vacations. 16 Many years later Dawidek’s 

friend sets out to investigate the 

events that came to shape his entire 

life. The novel has been described as 

a coming-of-age story, an adventure 

novel or even as a philosophical 

treatise. 

Like Who Was David Weiser?, Huelle’s 

next two books Stories for a Time of 

Relocation (1991) and First Love 

and Other Stories (1996) are set in his 

home town of Gdansk and its environs, 

even though they are concerned with 

different historical periods and social 

milieus. 

When I fi nish a book, I hope that some 

images will settle in my mind. I hope 

there are some of those in the book – 

powerful images for the readers to take 

away. 

From an interview 

in The Independent 


Paweł Huelle 

Who Was David Weiser? 

About: 

“An intoxicating read,” “a masterpiece,” “novel of the 

decade,” “a book so good it’s fearsome” – this is just 

a random pick from the enthusiastic praise showered on 

Who Was David Weiser? by the critics in Poland and abroad. 

Hailed as the best Polish novel of the 1980’s, translated 

into a number of languages, it made Paweł Huelle famous 

and granted him a secure position as one of Poland’s most 

important contemporary writers. 

In 2000 it was adapted for the screen. According to the 

director, Wojciech Marczewski, Weiser (starring, among 

others, Marek Kondrat, Krystyna Janda, Piotr Fronczewski 

and Zbigniew Zamachowski) is a fi lm about “memory, its 

terrible power and its fallibility.” 

None of the interpretations of Paweł Huelle’s novel have 

solved the mystery of the little David Weiser. Who was he? 

Why did he draw his friends’ attention to himself? What truth 

was hidden behind his unusual ideas and experiments? And 

fi nally, why did he disappear all of a sudden? 

FICTION 

Paweł Huelle 

Cold Sea Tales 

About: 

In these eleven stories 

Pawel Huelle shows his 

master craftsmanship 

as a teller of beautiful, 

evocative stories. Though 

each tale is independent, 

they all share a setting on 

the Baltic coast, whether 

of Poland or of Sweden, 

and they all feature a large, 

signifi cant book, whether it 

is the Bible or a homeware 

catalogue. They cover 

a wide range of genres, 

including black comedy – 

such as Gendarme Polanke’s 

Fifteen Shots of Vodka, in 

which the gendarme drinks, 

while in parallel scenes the 

homeless woman he has 

terrorised on the road is 

exposed to the elements; 

mystery – such as Oland, in 

which an enslaved shepherd 

on a remote Scandinavian 

island encounters a strange 

and powerful magus who 

shows him the way to 

salvation, or Doctor Cheng, 

in which a man encounters 

a Chinese mystic who 

reveals to him the secret 

ALL RIGHTS AVAILABLE 

PREVIOUSLY 

PUBLISHED IN: 

Italy (Feltrinelli) 

Germany (Luchterhand/ 

Roman Fischer) 

Czech Republic (Mlada 

Fronta) 

Sweden (Brombergs) 

Hungary (Europa Kiadó) 

Norway (Gyldendal) 

Finland (Otava) 

Spain (Seix Barral) 

Croatia (Naklada MD) 

Holland (Amber) 

Russia (Azbuka klassika) 

UK (Bloomsbury) 

US (Harcourt) 

France (Bibliotheque 

l’age d’homme) 

Hebrew (Yediot) 

Brasil (Editora Record) 

of his wife’s sudden death; 

and real events – such 

as The Bicycle Express, in 

which the narrator recalls 

the excitement of the days 

when he helped deliver 

news bulletins from the 

striking dockyard at the 

height of the Solidarity 

union, or The Flight to 

Egypt, where an artist tries 

to befriend a beautiful 

Chechen refugee and her 

suspicious husband. 

17 


World 


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Portugal (Principia) 

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Slovenia (Modrijan Založba) 

Czech Republic (Kniha Zlin) 

Croatia (Meandar) 

18 


World 


About: 

The action of Pawel Huelle’s 

newest novel takes place in 

Gdansk, during a single day, 

in the indescript, but not too 

distant future. The city has 

undergone some substantial 

changes; a couple of 

streets have again 

switched names, mosques 

have sprung up near 

churches, the lives of the 

residents are sporadically 

paralyzed by mysterious 

explosions – in which some 

see the workings of Islamic 

fundamentalists, others 

the workings of a madman, 

while others still suspect 

sabotage by the producer of 

Monsignore brand wine. 

A group of friends from 

old times are heading to 

a photo session organized 

by Matthew, their mutual 

friend, who wants to paint 

The Last Supper. For each 

of them, this day, full of 

activities and unforeseeable 

coincidences will prove 

signifi cant in another way: 

each of them will have to 

confront their past and 

their signifi cant existential 

choices. The fate of the 

protagonists – in whom, 

as if in a mirror, a whole 

About: 

Paweł Huelle 

The Last Supper 

generation of Poles can see 

themselves – is just one 

tier of this exceptionally 

dense literary work. Using 

Mateusz’s painting as 

a springboard the book also 

continually takes up the 

controversies surrounding 

modern art. The Last 

Supper for all its structural 

mastery, erudite fi nesse and 

its handy dose of humour, 

is above all a merciless 

reckoning with Polish 

religiosity; it is a poignant 

questioning of who we 

actually are and what really 

constitutes our faith. 

FICTION 

Paweł Huelle 

Stories for a Time of Relocation 

A collection of short stories which elevate the events 

from the narrator’s childhood and youth to a mythical 

plane, thus lending to perfectly ordinary things 

extraordinary meanings. It turns out that everyday life 

is rich in secrets, full of omens and signs which can and 

must be deciphered. As the stories unfold, they form 

a family saga which takes place mostly in Gdańsk and 

Żuławy and Kaszuby, the surrounding countryside of 

varied and complex history. It is as much the history of 

these places that is told, as the lives of the people who 

used to inhabit them and then moved, and those who 

succeeded them and settled for good, whether out of 

their own free will or out of necessity.

Paweł Huelle 

Mercedes-Benz 

Over 50 000 copies sold in Poland! 

About: 

A most entertaining short 

novel, which begins in truly 

dramatic circumstances: 

the main character called 

Paweł (just like the Author 

to whom he is surprisingly 

similar) begins his driving 

lessons and almost dies 

of shame and humiliation. 

Trying to delay an utter 

calamity, he resorts to a 

truly Hrabalesque trick by 

beginning to weave a story 

about his grandparents’ 

cars. So we read of a brandnew 

Citroën being smashed 

by a train or of a mythic 

Mercedes-Benz in which 

FICTION 

Paweł Huelle 

Castorp 

About: 

his grandparents, along 

with some friends, chase 

a balloon thus inventing 

a new type of automobile 

“fox hunt.” As the story 

gradually moves to the 

present, Paweł, magnetised 

by his instructor’s beauty 

and sensitivity, gets to 

know some dramatic and 

beautiful facts from her 

life. This part of the story is 

more about different human 

fates in Poland at the time 

of economic and political 

changes. But at some 

point Paweł fi nishes his 

classes and parts with his 

infatuating instructor. The 

story ends with the news of 

Huelle’s Castorp can be read as a variation on the Magic 

Mountain theme, a sort of fantasy based on the Gdansk 

motifs in Thomas Mann’s novel, particularly cherished by the 

Gdansk-based writer. The life of Hans Castorp, a student 

at the Imperial Technical Academy, is monotonous and 

predictable, until the unexpected outbreak of a feeling 

for a beautiful, unattainable Polish woman. The ensuing 

psychic crisis leaves him pondering existential questions 

and discovering the darker side of life. With the Gdansk 

old town, its fi n-de-siècle quarter Wrzeszcz and the 

popular seaside resort Sopot for action settings, the novel 

is blessed with a distinct, unforgettable atmosphere. 

Bohumil Hrabal’s death and 

a most impressive literary 

praise of his writing and life. 

Being an extremely skilled 

narrator, Huelle uses 

Hrabal’s idea well and 

alludes frequently to his 

writing yet it is done in a 

very non-obtrusive, and 

well-balanced manner. The 

narration is multi-levelled 

and multidimensional, 

motives from Hrabal’s 

work are interwoven with 

contemporary ones as 

well as with a nostalgic, 

humorous and warm 

expedition into a family’s 

past. 

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France (Gallimard) 

Yugoslavia (Alfa Narodna) 


Croatia (Meandar Media) 

Russia (NLO) 

Spain (Grup 62) 

Turkey (Dogan Kitapcilik) 

Italy (Voland) 

Romania (Polirom) 

Portugal (Principia) 

Bulgaria (Colibri) 

Ukraine (Suchascnosc) – 

magazine edition 

Czech Republic (Kniha Zlin) 


RIGHTS SOLD: 


Germany (C.H. Beck) 


Slovenia (Litera) 

Israel (Am Oved) 

Spain (Alianza Editorial) 



Antoni Libera is a writer, translator and stage director. Among his translations into Polish are all 

of Samuel Beckett’s plays and much of his prose. He has also directed many of Beckett’s plays, 

both in Poland and abroad (among others Krapp’s Last Tape with David Warrilow at the Haymarket 

Leicester and Riverside Studios 1989–1990, and Endgame with Barry MacGovern at the Gate 

Theatre, presented at the Barbican in 1999), and has presented them at a number of international 

theatre festivals. Beckett, with whom he was in regular contact, called him “my deputy in Eastern 

Europe.” He has also translated and written librettos, among others for the Polish composer 

Krzysztof Penderecki. In 1990 he made his debut as a playwright at the Royal Court Theatre in 

London with his “Platonic dialogue” entitled Eastern Promises (published by Methuen). 

His 1998 novel Madame was awarded a number of prizes in Poland and translated into 

20 languages. It was published in English by Farrar Straus & Giroux (1999) and Canongate (2000). 

In 2002 it was shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and in 2004 nominated for the Prix 

Européen de Littérature. 

20 


Antoni Libera 

Madame 

About: 

Madame is a novel about 

a writer’s coming-of-age. 

It ex plores the effects 

of dreams and fantasy, 

the magic of art and the 

possibilities of imagination; 

it subtly unveils the nature 

of myth and the ways in 

which myth comes into 

being. An immensely 

rich, multilayered 

book, part parody, part 

fi ctional au to biog raphy, 

Madame chronicles the 

Over 90 000 copies sold in Poland! 

Antoni Libera 

Godot and His Shadow 

About: 

Godot and His Shadow is an 

autobiographical tale of 

the magic of literature and 

the author’s fascination 

with Samuel Beckett, one 

of the twentieth century’s 

most enigmatic writers. For 

Libera, the poetic oeuvre 

of the “master of sadness 

and loneliness” achieves 

the dimension of prophetic 

speech with the power to 

transform people and force 

them to know themselves. 

It is the story of an epiphany 

and the journey following in 

stages of the young 

narrator’s journey through 

frustration, humiliation and 

disillusionment to his fi nal 

acceptance of his lot as 

a writer. At the same time it 

is a very moving novel about 

strength and frailty, fi rst 

love, and a young man’s 

comic and painful attempts 

to come to terms with the 

confl ict between the ideals 

of the spirit and the realities 

of the fl esh – and to 

rec on cile, through art, the 

FICTION 

the footsteps of the man to 

whom the epiphany is owed. 

His eponymous Madame was 

a fi ctitious character; Beckett 

is real. In this book again 

the narrator, like a detective, 

follows the leads to the 

culmination: from Warsaw 

via New York and London 

to Paris, where an unusual 

encounter takes place. This 

time, however, a different 

thing is at stake. Not love, but 

the answer to the question of 

the meaning of life. 

opposing forces of reason 

and passion. 

Readers who admired 

Bernhard Schlink’s The 

Reader won’t want to 

miss this scintillating 

bil dungsroman... 

A sophisticated coming-of- 

-age tale that’s also delicious 

high entertainment. Put this 

one already on the list of this 

year’s best novels. 

Kirkus Reviews 


World 

RIGHTS SOLD: 

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& Giroux) 

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Australia (Text Publishing Co.) 

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Norway (Gyldendal) 

Holland (Prometheus) 

Greece (Patakis) 

Finland (Tammi) 

French language (Buchet 

Chastel) 

Catalonia (Proa) 

Russia (NLO) 

Lithuania(Strofa) 

Slovenia (Cankarjeva 

Založba) 

Israel (Yediot) 

Slovakia (Luč) 

Czech Republic (Paseka) 

Turkey (Dogan Kitap) 

Portugal (Livraria 

Civilização Editora) 

Spain (Tusquets Editores) 




Maria Nurowska was born in 1944 in the 

village of Okółek in Suwalskie province; 

she graduated from Warsaw University in 

Polish and Slavic philology; she made her 

debut in 1974 in Literatura monthly. 

Undoubtedly, part of the charm of Maria 

Nurowska’s books origins in the fascinating 

biography of the author: a granddaughter 

of an aristocrat, the owner of a palace 

in Homl, a daughter of a legionary and 

a Polish resistance soldier – later a zealous 

communist, defi nitely an amazing woman. 

The heroines of Nurowska’s books are truly 

exceptional women, full of passion and love, 

by far surpassing their partners entangled 

in politics, ideology, and broken by history’s 

paradoxes. 

Nurowska is a representative of the so 

called women’s writing. She is at present 

one of the most popular authors in 

Poland. She often uses the convention 

of melodrama (for example in the novels 

SPANISH EYES, LOVE LETTERS, MAIDENS 

AND WIDOWS) to create a psychological 

portrait of the character or to show her 

confl ict with the outside world. In the 

latter instance, she sets the narration in 

a certain historic period (World War Two) 

or in the present times. 

Her writing is based fi rst of all on the 

poetics of the narration romance and 

psychological novel, but she also uses 

elements of novel of manners and sociopolitical 

novel. Her writing method is to 

consciously use various aspects of kitsch 

and emotions provoked by it; she confronts 

stereotypes with the unique, trivia with 

the rare, she triggers easy emotions and 

surprisingly deep refl ections; the constructs 

her characters with great skill, she 

develops the plot lightly, balancing on the 

verge of consciously chosen exaggeration 

and naivety, she proves how grotesque can 

be the fate of a woman who is deeply and 

stubbornly in love.


Your Name 

About: 

The quiet life of Elisabeth 

Connery, a thirty-something 

art historian, which was 

fi lled with her work at 

a New York college and 

meetings with friends, 

suddenly changes, when her 

husband Jeff disappears 

without a trace during 

a solitary research trip to 

Ukraine. Elisabeth decided 

to go search for him. Lviv, 

which she considered exotic 

and scary, turns out to 

be a city impressing with 

tradition, but at the same 

time destroyed by years of 

communism, anarchy and 

FICTION 


Return to Lvov 

About: 

Return to Lvov – the second 

volume in the literary cycle 

of Maria Nurowska begun in 

Your Name – is a continuation 

of the story of Elisabeth, 

Andrew and Oksana’s son 

Alek, whom Elisabeth takes 

to the States. Overcoming 

arrogance of the authorities. 

Thanks to Andrew Sanicki, 

a Ukrainian lawyer she 

meets on the way, the 

heroine manages to reach 

an associate of Georgij 

Gongadze, an opposition 

journalists killed by 

Ukrainian security service. 

Elisabeth suspects that the 

same could have happened 

to Jeff, who worked closely 

with Gongadze. But she does 

not lose hope – she decides 

to undertake a dangerous 

journey to the Chernobyl 

zone, and then to Chechen 

Republic. She meets Oksana 

Krywenko, an oppositionist 

kept in jail and accused of 

the boy’s mistrust, caused 

by his feeling of being lost 

In a foreign environment, 

is a huge challenge for 

Elisabeth. But there are even 

bigger challenges awaiting 

her: motherhood she did not 

want, which will change her 

and Andrew’s life and another 

journey to Ukraine, where the 

kidnapping Jeff Connery, 

and – as it turns out – 

a mother of his several years 

old son Alek. The fates of 

the two women are suddenly 

connected, and the journey 

to wild Caucasus turns out 

not to be the most risky of 

Elisabeth’s undertakings. 

Your Name, the fi rst novel 

In Nurowska’s „Ukrainian 

trilogy”, continued in Return 

to Lvov, is a story of courage 

and sacrifi ce, helplessness 

in the face of evil and love 

which sometimes can be 

diffi cult to accept. Distinctive 

characters, references 

to the most important 

contemporary events make 

political situation becomes 

even more tense. What will 

be the course of their life torn 

between two continents? The 

mystery of the disappearance 

of Jeff Connery, Elisabeth’s 

husband, is still unsolved – is 

there still a change to fi nd 

him? 

Maria Nurowska’s novel, 

with the background of the 

recent dramatic events 

in Ukraine, is a story of 

passion and courage, 

perversity of fate which puts 

Your Name and Return to Lvov are two parts of „Ukrainian trilogy,” in which complicated 

fates of the characters intertwine with contemporary history of America and Ukraine, on 

the one side – the World Trade Centre tragedy and a loss of faith in one’s own country, 

and on the other side – fi ght for freedom and independence, against anarchy and 

foreign power. Love and betrayal, egoism and sacrifi ce, personal dramas and political 

confl icts – these novels of the one of the most popular Polish writers are moving stories, 

which even though are deeply rooted in the present, touch on the most universal human 

problems. The fi nal volume of the trilogy is the novel Two Loves. 

RIGHTS SOLD: 

Germany (dtv) 

Slovakia (Anapress) 

Your Name a moving story 

that readers will remember 

for a long time. The fi nal 

volume of the trilogy is the 

novel Two Loves. 

RIGHTS SOLD: 

Germany (dtv) 

23 

us constantly to the test, 

and also of faithfulness – 

both to ideas and emotions. 


RIGHTS SOLD: 


24 


World 


About: 

The new, three-volume 

edition of the famous 

saga by Maria Nurowska, 

which at the beginning of 

1990’s was adapted both 

for cinema and television, 

covers over a hundred 

years of Polish history. 

The fates of six women 

are interwoven with the 

fate of the country. From 

the defeat of the January 

Uprising, captivity and 

About: 

Poland, 1982. A wellknown 

writer asks 

a young journalist who 

fell into disfavour to 

collect documentation on 

countess Krystyna Skarbek, 

an aristocrat of Jewish 

origins. For the journalist, 

at the beginning her task 

is just a job, but soon the 

investigation draws her 

in, and the image of the 

woman emerging from it 

emigration, through 

Second Polish Republic, 

German occupation, 

communism, to Solidarity 

movement, martial law and 

contemporary times – we 

accompany Nurowska’s 

heroines, extraordinary 

women with strong 

characters, dramatic 

biographies, united by their 

love to the family home in 

Lechice. 

begins to fascinate her. The 

story she learns is truly 

exceptional. A clandestine 

agent of the Polish 

underground army, and 

later of the British secret 

service, beautiful Krystyna, 

who during war used the 

pseudonym Christine 

Granville, infl uences 

everyone who encounter 

her. Collecting lovers and 

heroic deeds, she shows 


Maidens and Widows, vol.1-3 

spends the time of the 

confl ict abroad. The both 

manage to survive the war, 

but as will be proved by 

later fate of Karolina, the 

long awaited liberation 

will not mean the same for 

everyone. 

FICTION 


The Lover 

now caution – there is a thin 

boundary between bliss 

and death in her life. Maria 

Nurowska build a colourful 

and multi-layered story 

around the historic fi gure of 

Krystyna Skarbek. A story of 

a woman fi ghting cruel fate, 

full of contradictions, and 

never truly understood.


Russian Lover 

About: 

A love story of a fi fty years 

old Polish woman and 

a younger Russian man who 

is on a scholarship in Paris. 

The heroine travels there 

to give lectures on Polish 

literature and experiences 

her fi rst, big and much too 

late romance. Julia is forced 

to reconsider the choices 

she made in life. She fi ghts 

against her feelings and 

her body, but she loses that 

fi ght. In her novel, Maria 

FICTION 


German Dance 

About: 

Nurowska plays with the 

stereotypes of the Russian, 

the Polish, the fi fty years 

old women and, fi nally, the 

stereotype of romance itself. 

When I am being asked 

what this novel is about, 

I answer: a triangle. He, she, 

and her body. Julia plays 

with her body, neglected 

for years, which suddenly 

against her will begins to 

demand attention. Her 

The street of Munich on the New Year’s Eve of 2000. 

Hidden in the crowd welcoming the new millennium is 

Eliza von Saarow, one of the heroines of the novel, who 

reminiscences about her youth age spent in Pomerania. 

She left there the ruins of a family residence, tombs of 

her ancestors and the love of her life. The second heroine, 

missionary Marianna von Saarow, dies of AIDS In Africa. 

The two women have been separated from each other 

since the time of war and exile by a family secret. Will they 

fi nd courage to face it as their lives come to an end? 

rebellion is hopeless. She 

has to capitulate, because 

one cannot live against 

biology. Love to a man and 

motherhood are the pillars 

of women’s fate. If one 

misses them – life loses 

stability. Therefore love to 

a much younger Man. She – 

Polish, professor, a visitor 

to Sorbonne. He – Russian 

historian on a scholarship to 

Paris. 


RIGHTS SOLD: 

Germany (dtv) 

Czech Rep. (Motto) 

Russia (Ripol) 

25 


World 


RIGHTS SOLD: 

Germany (dtv) 


World 

About: 

Maria Nurowska – one of the 

most popular Polish writers, 

known and appreciated 

in many countries around 

the world. Publication of 

each of her novels is an 

event. But her latest novel 

is truly unique. It is an 

amazing story of friendship 

between people and 

wolves. Kasia, a graduate 


About: 

The third volume in the 

saga started with Your 

Name and Return to Lvov 

is a continuation of the 

story of Elizabeth Connery, 

Andrew Sanicki, their 

daughter, and Oksana’s 

son Alek. Elizabeth cannot 

escape her past. She is 

happily in love, but the 

thought of her husband’s 

of SGGW in Warsaw, comes 

to Bieszczady mountains 

to collect data for her 

PhD thesis on wolves. 

At the research station 

she meets Olgierd and 

Marcin. Diffi culties of life 

in primitive conditions 

bring the three scientists, 

who at the beginning were 

distrustful, together as 

friends, and with time two 

of them will be united by 

something more. The fi rst 

night observation of wolves 

is a start of great fascination 

for Katarzyna, and next 

even closer encounters with 

the pack create an almost 

mystical bond between 

them. This bond makes all 

city disappointments seem 

irrelevant. 

mysterious disappearance 

during a research trip to 

Ukraine still haunts her. 

She travels to Donieck to 

try to solve the mystery 

from a few years back. 

Soon, she will be a missing 

person herself, when no 

one can determine her 

location. The third volume 

in the Ukrainian trilogy is 

Kasia engages in defence 

of the animals, and she 

brings Polish sheepdogs to 

a village nearby, so they can 

drive the predators away 

and keep them away from 

human homes. Finally, she 

crosses paths with a local 

poacher, which puts her 

own life in danger. 

This book has been „writing 

itself” in my head since, 

as a fourteen-year-old 

girl I got off at Karwica 

Mazurska station in the Piski 

forest. My father had just 

been appointed at forest 

administration in Karwica, 


Two Loves 

full of references to recent 

political events in Ukraine, 

related to dramatic fates of 

the characters. Surprisingly 

relevant, and at the same 

time universal story of 

people constantly put to 

tests and fi ghting fate’s 

perversity. 

FICTION 



I was supposed to had been 

picked up from the train, 

but no one was waiting for 

me. I did not know that the 

village is several kilometres 

away. It was an autumn 

afternoon and as I started 

to walk, not really knowing 

if it was a good direction, 

darkness fell. Suddenly I saw 

several dark silhouettes 

crossing the road. I froze, 

but I had to move forward. 

For the rest of the way home 

I had a feeling there are fi ery 

eyes of the wolves on both 

sides of the road, that the 

wolves are guiding me.


Requiem for a Wolf 

About: 

Young director Joanna 

travels to Bieszczady 

to meet her idol, an 

exceptional fi lmmaker who 

comes back to Poland after 

forty years to build a house 

in Bieszczady. It turns out 

there was a tragic accident 

in the area recently – 

a young scientist Katarzyna, 

collecting materials for her 

PhD thesis on wolves, died 

from a poacher’s bullet. The 

villagers still remember 

Kasia, and they discover 

FICTION 27 


The Moon over Zakopane 

similarities between Joanna 

and her. The heroine is 

intrigued and begins to 

search for information about 

the girl, contacts her school, 

rents the cabin in which 

Kasia lived. She starts to live 

Kasia’s life and although she 

knows nothing about wolves, 

she decides to fi nd and 

photograph them. 

In the meantime, the 

director, who at the 

beginning was reluctant 

about Joanna, starts to 

Follow-up to the famous novel To Feed the Wolves published in 2010. 

About: 

How did it all start? Why did 

I become a writer? When 

readers ask me about it, 

I think that my life was 

always guided by chance, so 

I became a writer by chance. 

The autobiographical 

novel of Maria Nurowska 

is not only a record of 

creative development and 

the stories behind novels 

of one of the most widely 

read and translated Polish 

writers. The Moon Over 

Zakopane is, among others, 

a story of homes: from 

the lost paradise of her 

father’s forester’s lodge, 

through fl ats which barely 

had room for a typewriter, 

to adventures related to 

the house of her dreams in 

Tatra mountains. In a world 

where fame is changeable, 

men – volatile, and reality, 

no matter if communistic 

or early capitalistic, is full 

of comical and often cruel 

show interest in her. The 

story becomes even more 

complicated when Olgierd 

appears in the village, 

determined to guard the 

wolves and her memories of 

Katarzyna. 

An excellent novel about 

fascination with somebody 

else’s life, dilemma 

and passion. About the 

mysterious word of wild 

animals which becomes an 

obsession. 

paradoxes, what becomes 

the most important (apart 

from love) is one’s own 

place in the world. 

Literary autobiography 

of Maria Nurowska will 

stay with readersa for 

a long time – full of vivid 

anecdotes and sharp, often 

ironic observations. 


World 


World 


World 


RIGHTS SOLD: 

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Turkey (Bizim) 

28 

RIGHTS SOLD: 

Germany (Fischer) 



About: 

How many identities can 

one have? Does hiding the 

truth and leading a double 

life contradict true love? 

The Fate of Nurowska’s 

character is very 

complicated. Teenage Jew 

a Elżbieta Elsner, in order to 

save her father and herself 

from starvation in the 

ghetto, decides to become 

a prostitute. One of her 

clients, a high-ranking SS 

man gets her a Kennkarte 

and organizes her escape to 

the Aryan side. The heroine, 

under the name of Krystyna 

Chylińska, accidentally 

ends up in the house 

of doctor Korzecki. The 

Jewish girl and the Polish 

doctor, recipient of much 

later unsent letters, fall in 

love – a love that will last 

for decades. New family, 

relationship with a beloved 

About: 


Love Letters 

man, work as a translator – 

one could think it all 

grants happiness. But the 

war trauma is still vivid. 

Especially when suddenly 

the other one appears – like 

a ghostly shadow from the 

ghetto. 

FICTION 


Tango for Three 

Ola is the second wife of Zygmunt, her acting class 

teacher. She feels bad about his ex-wife Elżbieta, and she 

decides to help her. She comes up with an intrigue, the 

goal of which is to make them all act in Bulgakov’s play 

on Moliere and his two life partners – a younger and an 

older woman. Ola and Elżbieta gradually become friends, 

but it is a toxic relationship. They begin to act not only on 

the stage, but also in real life. Ola becomes a victim of 

her own trick – she gets lost. Tango for Three is a story 

about a diffi cult love, a feeling that on the one hand leads 

to catastrophe, but on the other – to a certain liberation. 

Only the discovery that we all act subsequent roles in the 

theatre of lives makes Ola fi ght for herself. Tango for three 

is a story told through emotions.


The Case of Nina S. 

About: 

Legal adviser Jerzy Baran 

was shot In his Warsaw 

apartment. The investigation 

is led by commissioner 

Zawadka, an experienced 

policeman, still looking for 

professional fulfi lment – 

a task that would change 

his life. His instinct tells him 

that Jerzy B. murder might 

be that case. Writer Nina 

S, an ex-lover of the victim, 

pleads guilty of the murder, 

but the commissioner does 

not believe her version of the 

story. To uncover the truth, 

FICTION 29 


Spanish Eyes 

About: 

We meet Anna and her 

daughter at a psychologist’s 

offi ce, as they try to solve 

Ewa’s problem, bulimia. If 

the girl is to truly recover, 

she needs therapy. The 

toxic love between her and 

her mother must turn into 

an emotion that will not 

hurt them. Is it possible 

for the daughter to repeat 

her mother’s fate? To 

what extent traumas from 

adolescence determine or 

lives and the lives of our 

he reads the writer’s journal 

and testimonies of her twin 

daughters. He learns stories 

of three women. Their 

desires, fears and secrets 

hidden for years. He enters 

the world where love is 

inseparable from meanness, 

and one has to fi ght 

constantly for emotion and 

dignity. It is a world, where 

every moment of inattention 

has a high price. 


masterfully uses the genre 

of detective novel to create 

loved ones? Spanish Eyes 

is a story of a diffi cult love, 

adolescence, being lost, 

acceptance and suffering. 

Nurtowska’s heroine is 

a victim of history, leaving 

an indelible mark on her 

mind and later life. 

There is an amazing story 

related to writing Spanish 

Eyes. by the end of summer 

of 1988 I met a woman in the 

park. Even though she was 

no longer young, she had one 

a praise of love between 

mother and daughters, 

between one sister and 

another. She juxtaposes evil 

world of men and tender 

and gentle world of women. 

She juxtaposes a toxic 

emotion with the sensation 

it brings. The heroes of 

The case of Nina S. are 

tragic characters, crushed 

by history and dangerous 

emotions. 

of the most beautiful faces 

I had ever seen. I started 

talking to her. And suddenly, 

surprising us both, she 

started telling me her story. 

I turned out later I was her 

fi rst and only listener since 

she came back from exile in 

Siberia in 1953. She was sent 

there when she was fi fteen 

as a punishment for her 

participation in the Warsaw 

Uprising. She did not come 

back from the Soviet Union 

alone – she brought back her 

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daughter, a fruit of rape in 

the labour camp. 




World 

30 

About: 

“If you want to describe me 

as a traitor, go ahead, and if 

you want to agree with the 

most dramatic decision I’ve 

ever made, I’ll be happy” said 

Ryszard Kukliński during 

a meeting in 1999. There was 

only one condition: the book 

could only be published after 

his death. 

Maria Nurowska listens 

carefully, asks questions and 

observes this short man, 

whose life has been more 

fascinating than literary 

fi ction. “Freedom fi ghter,” 


World 


About: 

Anna’s Choice by Maria 

Nurowska, a new edition of 

her novel Postscript from 

1989 is a deeply moving 

story told with great 

empathy. Anna Łazarska, 

a forty-year-old violinist, 

fi nds her father’s diary 

and discovers she is not 

the person she thought 

she was. Her real name is 

Miriam Zarg, and she was 

saved from the Warsaw 

as he was called by the 

Americans, liked to work at 

night. It was quiet then in 

general staff, and he could 

see farther and better in the 

dark. Sometimes he felt the 

true burden of responsibility, 

like when he realized that if 

the Russian Army invades 

the West, Poland will be the 

fi rst destination of NATO’s 

nuclear attack. That is why 

in 1972 he made an attempt 

to contact representatives 

of the American army 

and started cooperation 

with them several months 

later. To protect his wife, 

he transformed into 

a heartbreaker. He was 

deeply aware that women 

had always been the best 

alibis. 

ghetto as an infant. She is 

in shock. She loses trust in 

her father and abandons 

him, even though he is 

seriously ill and needs 

her care. Anna contacts 

her relatives, but cannot 

accept her new role. She 

painstakingly tries to put 

together her two lives. We 

learn her story from the 

journalist Hans Benek. 

Their meeting completes 

But before he started this 

dangerous game, crucial 

for the fate of his nation, he 

was an ordinary boy, who 

joined offi cers’ school, got 

an apartment in Wrocław 

so big that he could rollerstake 

in it, and fell in love 

with a skinny girl in a blue 


Anna’s Choice 

the picture created by Maria 

Nurowska. Anna’s personal 

tragedy illustrates the fates 

of three nations entangled 

in World War Two: Jews, 

Poles, and Germans. 

FICTION 


My Friend the Traitor 

dress, who played out of 

tune piano. 

Kukliński tells also about 

his love for sailing, favourite 

quince vodka, dramatic 

escape from Poland, 

unusual war with mice, and 

the loss of two sons… 

Today, Kukliński is a monument. Some put fl owers in front 

of it, others turn their heads away. In a few years, his story 

will be taught at schools. But not many wonder who Ryszard 

Kukliński really was. Not whether he was a traitor or a hero, 

but who he was as a man. This is what Maria Nurowska’s 

book is about. 

Newsweek

Non- 31 

-Fiction 



World 

About: 

32 

Miłosz. A biography by 

Andrzej Franaszek is not 

only a colourful portrait of 

one of the greatest authors 

of the 20th century, but also 

a historical account showing 

the brutal paroxysms of 

that time: wars, revolutions, 

totalitarianisms, uprisings, 

independence movements. 

The poet, who lived for 

almost hundred years, 

experienced all those 

events personally – as well 

as the fate of an exile, so 

characteristic of that time – 


The event of the year of Czesław Miłosz! 

An exceptional life, an exceptional biography. 


Andrzej Franaszek (1971) – literary critic, editor in the 

culture section of Tygodnik Powszechny, graduate of Polish 

philology at the Jagiellonian University. He concentrates 

on the life and work of contemporary Polish writers. 

He published, among others, „Ciemne źródło. Esej 

o cierpieniu w twórczości Zbigniewa Herberta” (nominated 

to Nike literary prize in 1999, second edition: Znak 2008), 

„Przepustka z piekła. 44 szkice o literaturze i przygodach 

duszy” (Znak 2010) and fi rst and foremost the monumental 

biography of Czesław Miłosz. 

and he examined them 

thoroughly in his works, 

which surprise the reader 

with their range of artistic 

diversity. 

Andrzej Franaszek was 

collecting materials for 

the biography for almost 

ten years – in Poland and 

Lithuania, in France and 

the United States. He 

spoke with everyone who 

could contribute important 

information about Miłosz, 

he searched through 

the archives at Beinecke 

Library and Maisons- 

Laffi tte, he investigated 

the poet’s extensive 

correspondence. What is 

more, he used his material 

in an amazing manner – he 

does not overwhelm the 

reader with excess data, but 

rather he creates a portrait 

of the hero of his story 

in an effortless style. He 

does not avoid painful and 

diffi cult subjects, delicate 

personal matters, dramatic 

decisions and choices. He 

presents them tactfully 

Andrzej Franaszek 


NON-FICTION 

and with empathy, he helps 

the reader to learn the 

secrets of a fascinating life 

of a great man. Reading 

the work of Andrzej 

Franaszek, we gain hope 

that we may understand the 

phenomenon of Milosz’s 

talent, the intricacies of his 

personality – that we may 

understand what shaped 

his mind, imagination and 

poetic sensitivity.

Travels with Ryszard Kapuściński 

Thirteen Translators Tell Their Stories 


This book was supposed 

to be a surprise gift for 

Ryszard Kapuściński. 

Unfortunately, we did not 

complete it in time to 

show him. 

Travels with Ryszard 

Kapuściński are very 

personal stories told by 

his translators: Astrit 

Beqiraj from Tirana, 

Anders Bodegård from 

Stockholm, William 

Brand from the United 

States (who now lives 

in Poland), Klara 

Główczewska from New 

NON-FICTION 

About: 

Part two of Travels with 

Ryszard Kapuściński 

contains very personal 

accounts of Kapuściński 

by his translators. Among 

those who share their 

memories of the famous 

reporter who died two 

years ago are Ljubica Rosić 

and Biserka Rajčić from 

Belgrade, the Transatlantyk 

Prize winner Ksenia 

Starosielska from Moscow, 

the director of the Krakow 

York, Tapani Kärkkäinen 

from Helsinki, Blagovesta 

Lingorska from Sophia, 

Mihai Mitu from Bucharest, 

Katarzyna Mroczkowska- 

-Brand from Cracow, Agata 

Orzeszek from Barcelona, 

Véronique Patte from 

Paris, Martin Pollack from 

Vienna, Dušan Provaznik 

from Prague, and Vera 

Veridiani from Florence. 

For these thirteen 

individuals Kapuściński 

was not only their master, 

but also a person very dear 

to them. 

Travels with Ryszard Kapuściński, 

part 2. 

The Tales of Fourteen Translators 

offi ce of the Cervantes 

Institute Abel Murcia 

Soriano, the Canadian 

of Polish descent Diana 

Kuprel, Tomasz Barciński 

from Rio de Janeiro and 

the Spanish-Polish couple 

Anna Rubio and Jerzy 

Sławomirski who translate 

Kapuściński’s works into 

Catalan. What emerges 

from these memories is 

the portrait of not only 

an outstanding writer, 

intellectual and mentor, but 

also a dear friend, a man 

of uncommon warmth and 

kindness. 

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33 


World 


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Agency, Zürich 

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Grece (Metainimio) 

Ukraine (ECEM Media) 

Sweden (Bonniers) 

ALL RIGHTS: 

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Agency, Zürich 

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About: 

This book was born out of 

the editor’s keen interest 

in Ryszard Kapuściński’s 

writing and a desire to 

acquaint his readers with 

a considerable number of 

interviews published in both 

Polish and foreign press, 

which reveal more than his 

books do. Most importantly, 

what kind of person was 

Kapuściński? And how 

did he happen to turn his 

profession into a mission 

and a true passion. 


presented Krystyna 

Strączek with over 1100 

pages of text encompassing 

About: 

A collection of Ryszard 

Kapuściński’s ruminations 

about globalization, 

history, and specifi c 

geographical regions: 

Africa, Latin America, 

Europe and Russia. The 

book’s selection of texts 

and arrangement of the 

chapters was approved 

by Ryszard Kapuściński 

himself. One can treat 

this text as a supplement 

to his fi rst-rate works of 

over a hundred interviews 

with Polish and foreign 

journalists. As she read 

through it, she realised 

that it was a priceless 

gem, since it included 

not only Kapuściński’s 

views upon the work of 

a correspondent, but also 

an extraordinary tale 

about himself, his passion 

for travelling, his unique 

method of writing, the 

necessity to risk one’s 

life for a good purpose. 

The interviews contain 

Kapuściński’s account of 

the loneliness and fear 

experienced by foreign 

reportage, or as a point 

of departure for weighing 

in on the richness of our 

multifaceted modern 

world. 

These texts show Ryszard 

Kapuściński as not only 

a reporter and writer, they 

demonstrate his bewildering 

professional knowledge (after 

all, he was educated as 

a historian) about the fate 

and culture of regions 


A Reporter: Self-portrait 

correspondents, his 

views on the hardships 

of writing and the burden 

of fame. Out of all the 

material emerged a book 

of quotes divided into fi ve 

chapters devoted, among 

others, to Kapuściński’s 

travels, his writing process 

and the idiosyncrasies of 

contemporary media. Highly 

readable as a concise 

autobiography and a kind 

of guide for aspiring 

journalists, it may serve 

either as an introduction 

to Kapuściński’s writing 

or a most valuable new 

perspective on his work. 

NON-FICTION 


The Rapid Current of History. 

Writings on the 20th and 21st Centuries 

he visited. But it is not 

a mere show of erudition. 

Kapuściński calls on facts 

in oder to interpret them, 

to show historical and 

cultural parallels, and to 

prognosticate. 

(from Krystyna Strączek’s 

introduction) 

This book is illustrated with 

Kapuściński’s very own 

previously unpublished 

pictures.

Beata Nowacka, 

Zygmunt Ziątek 

Ryszard Kapuściński. A Writer’s Biography 

Authored by the literary 

scholars Beata Nowacka and 

Zygmunt Ziątek, researchers 

of Kapuściński’s work 

of many years’ standing, 

the book is a pioneering 

presentation of the great 

reporter’s oeuvre in its 

entirety. 

The creative biography of one 

of the 20th century’s preeminent 

reporters describes 

the development and 

transformations of his writing, 

and also tells the life story of 

the writer who often made 

himself the protagonist of his 

texts. Alongside the analyses 

of Kapuściński’s reportage, 

the authors provide the 

history behind every piece, 

as well as their reception in 

Poland and abroad. 

Full of hereto unknown 

facts and bits of information 

freshly unearthed from the 

archives, this book is an 

indispensable and unrivalled 

guide for all interested in 

Ryszard Kapuściński’s life 

and work. 

The authors on their book: 

“Our investigation of Ryszard 

Kapuściński’s work is not 

primarily motivated by 

interpretive accuracy. What 

we aimed to capture was 

the dynamics of his spiritual 

growth, his attempt at the 

reconstruction of his own 

biography in synch with the 

historical changes, his search 

for the compatibility of the 

new face of the world with 

his own identity. In one of our 

last tape-recorded interviews 

with him, the writer said: 

‘The reporter changes with 

the world. The trajectory of 

history is identical with that of 

a reporter’s life.’” 

Review excerpts: 

The impressive-looking 

volume Ryszard Kapuściński. 

A Writer’s Biography was 

many years in the making. The 

authors present the material 

collected in many unpublished 

interviews with Kapuściński. 

They relate the circumstances 

of the creation of his most 

important works, his travels 

near and far, his experience of 

war and his native Pińsk. 

– Bartosz Marzec, 

Rzeczpospolita 

The authors did an impressive 

work, getting to know more 

about Ryszard, his adventures 

and his successes than even 

he himself or his wife Alicja 

remembered. Every page 

of the book is full of facts; 

the evaluation of his works 

is almost always right, as 

is the evaluation of him as 

a person, of his beautiful and 

rich life. What’s more, the 

book is a panorama of the 

whole spectrum of political 

events both in Poland and 

abroad, which changed the 

world considerably in the last 

few decades … I learned some 

small details of Ryszard’s life 

which I hadn’t known before: 

for example, the fact that 

as a twelve-year-old he was 

an altar boy… and where? In 

general Berling’s army! I was 

friends with Ryszard for many 

years and he never told me 

that. 

– Wojciech Giełżyński, 

Nowe Książki 

... in short: a guide to his 

writing. 

– Justyna Sobolewska, 

Polityka 

The most comprehensive and 

the most detailed of Ryszard 

Kapuściński’s biographies to 

date. 

– Wprost 

... a splendid biography 

showing the complicated life 

story of a writer, a reporter, 

a man. 

– Nowa Trybuna Opolska 

The scope of the work and its 

interpretive accuracy are truly 

impressive, as is the utterly 

satisfi ed ambition to “capture 

the dynamics of Kapuściński’s 

spiritual growth.” 

– Przegląd Polski 

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World English Rights 

(Chicago UP) 

Russia (NLO) 

France (Noir sur Blanc) 

Spain (Acantilado) 

ENGLISH EDITION 

AVAILABLE 

36 


About: 

This book aims to draw 

attention to issues relating 

to illness and pain, which 

almost inevitably most of 

us will be obliged to face 

at some time in our lives. 

It discusses the art of 

medi cine and goes back 

to the Platonic notion of 

anamnesis; it de scribes 

how “constellations” of 

symptoms, refl ecting the 

position of the patient, 

come to form the diagnosis. 

It also talks about the gift of 

prognosis, which invariably 

evokes admiration among 

laymen. The author tells us 

how helpless a doctor can 

be and how he sometimes 

has to grope in the dark for 

an answer. Time and again 

he re fers us to music and 

poetry, which he justifi es by 

stating that medicine and 

art spring from the same 

source, i.e. magic. 

The book does not attempt 

to boast about progress in 

medical science, although 


Catharsis 

it does mention some 

of the most out standing 

achievements in this fi eld. 

The author de scribes 

dis cov eries in which he 

participated or which he 

wit nessed, touches upon 

the decline in medical 

ethics and tries to vi sua lise 

the future of medicine 

following the “de coding” 

of the human genome sequence. 

NON-FICTION 

I once wrote a line in a poem that went: “I prefer talking to 

doctors about something else...” In those days I didn’t know 

Doctor Andrzej Szczeklik personally, or his book, as it hadn’t 

come into existence yet. Now that I’ve read it, I’m convinced 

that Doctor Szczeklik is not only capable of talking “about 

something else”, but also of talking “about THIS”, and he can 

do it beautifully and fascinatingly. 

Wisława Szymborska 

Catharsis is a masterful restoration of the old etymological 

links that exist between what is hale and healthy and holy. 

Andrzej Szczeklik is professor of medicine, but he is also 

expert in “the science of the feelings”, which was how William 

Wordsworth defi ned poetry. His book is erudite, imaginative, 

intimate, authoritative; at once a reverie about the roots 

and responsibilities of doctoring, and a timely reminder that 

health care involves caritas before it involves the economy. 

Seamus Heaney


Kore 


Professor An drzej Szczeklik was born in Krakow on 

29 July, 1938. He graduated from the Medical Faculty 

of the Krakow Academy of Medicine, and con tin ued his 

education in the USA and Swe den. Now he is Head of 

the 2nd Internal Diseases Department of the Collegium 

Medicum at the Jagiello nian University. From 1990 to 

1993 he was Rector of the Krakow Acad emy of Medi cine; 

and from 1993 to 1996 Deputy Rector of the Jagiellonian 

University in charge of the Collegium Medi cum. Since 1995 

he has held the post of Na tional Consultant for Internal 

Dis eases. 

NON-FICTION 

About: 

This is the second book of Professor Andrzej Szczeklik, 

the author of Catharsis. The author describes the greatest 

achievements of medicine, both historic and recent. He 

ponders over what it means to be a physician, what is the 

core of this fi eld of science, and tries to fi nd its soul. The 

book is full of erudite references to literature, philosophy, 

history and arts. 

Kore in Greek means ‘girl’, but also ‘pupil’. The Greeks 

used to say that you can see your soul in the shape of 

a tiny girl through the pupil of your eye. How could they 

have known that the pupil is the only window to the 

brain? Where is the soul today? What does medicine tell 

us about the soul? Is medicine looking for soul in itself? 

Somewhere between life and death, health and illness, 

science and art, and fi nalny – love. Let her lead the way on 

our serach for soul. The soul of medicine. 

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About: 


The Black Garden 

Małgorzata Szejnert is an acclaimed journalist. For several 

years she worked for the Gazeta Wyborcza where she 

published many reportages and interviews. 

NON-FICTION 

Awarded the Cogito Literary Prize this outstanding book 

of reportage shows the history of the Silesia region where 

both Polish and German history was shaped. Małgorzata 

Szejnert reconstructs the extraordinary history of that 

region through the stories of families form a town called 

Giszowiec. These individual stories are truly fascinating 

and can function as excellent background for novels or 

scenarios. Szejnert shows the confl ict of identity that 

took place on a level as small as the family, as it often 

happened that one brother was a Polish patriot while the 

other was a German army offi cer. Szejnert portrays people 

who overcame the limitations of history and community. 

They fought stereotypes, their own weaknesses and they 

often won this battle. 

Shortlisted for the Nike Literary Prize in 2008.


Gateway Island 

Małgorzata Szejnert, an outstanding journalist, head of the 

reportage department at the Polish biggest daily, Gazeta 

Wyborcza, the author of Czarny ogród (Black Garden), the 

book honoured with the Polish Public Media Cogito Prize 

in 2008, has now turned her attention to Ellis Island. The 

tiny scrap of land just off the coast near New York City 

has long been called the “gateway to America.” Since late 

19 th century to the 1950s it was where all immigrants to 

the United States from all over the world arrived, in total 

nearly twelve million people. 

The majority spent just a few hours there. The less 

fortunate ones, however, could be detained for over 

a year, undergoing tedious procedures. Others still were 

simply turned away, because, according to Immigration 

Law, entrance could be denied to “idiots, the mentally 

ill, the destitute, polygamists, people who could become 

a public burden, who suffer from repulsive or dangerous 

contagious diseases, who were convicted for crimes or 

other disgraceful deeds, or committed acts of immorality,” 

as well as to all those who simply could not afford to travel 

inland. 

Enormously insightful, the author recreates the dramatic 

lives of the immigrants, both Polish, Jewish, German, 

Irish and Italian; she accompanies them under the decks 

of overloaded ships, during lenghty quarantines and all 

sorts of medical examinations, and describes their lot 

after entering America. Her main focus, however, are the 

employees of the Immigration Offi ce: the doctors, nurses, 

interpreters and social workers, or even chaperons who 

guarded the chastity of young girls. Szejnert tells the 

story of the Island up to the present day; today it hosts the 

Immigration Museum, with most of the staff descending 

from the immigrants who arrived on Ellis Island. 

The book is richly illustrated with unique archive 

photographs. 


World 

39 


40 

NON-FICTION 


This is a humbling and 

heartrending story of 

courage and tenacity, told 

self-effacingly and simply. (...) 

A testament to our capacity 

for evil and for transcending 

it, this is a lesson to us all. 

The Times 

Es gibt Literatur und es 

gibt das Leben. Und dann 

gibt es den Glücksfall. Ein 

Leben, das sich wie Literatur 

liest. So einer ist Karolina 

Lanckorońskas Erinnerungen 

an den Krieg. Die polnische 

Gräfi n, die kürzlich in Rom 

verstarb, kann man mit 


Praise for Those Who Trepass Against Us: 

Pro fessor Karo lina 

Lanckorońska was the last 

mem ber of the fa mous 

Lancko roński family from 

Brzezie. Born in 1898, she 

lived through the whole 

20 th cen tury and wit nessed 

as well as par tici pated in 

many im por tant his torical 

events. In 1994 she do nated 

the great Lanckoroński 

fami ly collection of 

paintings to the Polish 

nation. The artistic and 

his torical value of the 

collection is enormous 

bestem Gewissen unter die 

legendären Frauen des 20. 

Jahrhunderts einreihen. (...) 

Spätestens seit Imre Kertész 

in seinem Roman eines 

Schicksalslosen eine neue 

Sicht auf den Holocaust 

zauberte, wurde es klar, dass 

unter all den Gräueln ein 

Wunder verschüttet lag, das 

niemand bislang bemerkte. 

Das Wunder des Überlebens. 

In Karolina Lanckorońskas 

Kriegserinnerungen, die 

mit der Einnahme Lwows 

durch die Rote Armee 

1939 einsetzen und bis zu 

Lanckorońskas Befreiung 

aus dem Konzentrationslager 

Karolina Lanckorońska 

and the gift is one of 

unprecedented gener osity. 

Af ter World War II, Karo lina 

Lancko rońska decided to 

settle in Rome and de voted 

her time to the study of art 

history, es pe cially to the 

work of her beloved artist 

Mich elan gelo. Her sense of 

duty to wards Polish cul ture 

in duced her to the work 

for the Polish Historical 

In sti tute and since 1967 in 

the Lanckoroński family 

foun dation. She died on 

25 August, 2002. 

Ravensbrück 1945 reichen, ist 

dieses Wunder wieder da. (...) 

Albert Camus sagte 

einmal, dass ein Mensch 

niemals einen anderen 

töten dürfe, weil es gegen 

die fundamentalste Regel 

unserer Existenz verstoße – 

der Loyalität der Lebenden 

gegenüber dem Tod. Alber 

Camus wäre entzückt, 

eine so stark ausgeprägte 

Loyalität in der Person 

Karolina Lanckorońskas zu 

sehen. 

Der Standard Album

Karolina Lanckorońska 

Those Who Trespass Against Us 

About: 

Born in Buchberg, Austria, in 1898, Countess Karolina 

Lanckorońska was an aristocrat and art historian who 

taught at the University of Lwów, then part of Poland. When 

the Soviets came to occupy Lwów, Lanckorońska became 

active in the Polish resistance and moved to Kraków. 

She was arrested by the Germans in Kołomyja in 1942, 

imprisoned and later sentenced to death; incarcerated 

fi rst in Stanisławów, then in Lwów and Berlin before being 

placed in the notorious Ravensbrück concentration camp. 

As a countess, Lanckorońska was subjected to varying 

treatment, suffering near starvation at times only to 

receive extra food and medical care at others according 

to the fl uctuating and often confl icting orders from the 

authorities in Berlin. With the intervention of some 

infl uential friends and the honourable actions of one 

Nazi, she was saved from death on several occasions. 

Thanks to efforts by the Swiss diplomat, scholar and 

International Red Cross President Carl J. Burkhardt 

(whose correspondence with Heinrich Himmler was found 

among Lanckorońska’s personal belongings) she was 

fi nally released in April, 1945. 

Throughout her imprisonment, Lanckorońska remained 

defi antly resilient, loyal to Poland and committed to her 

fellow prisoners, including women used by Nazi doctors 

as guinea pigs for shocking medical experiments. Her 

magnetic personality and superb story-telling makes this 

a powerful narrative and sustains our interest through 

harrowing reading. Her ability to view her own horrifi c 

situation with objectivity gives us insight into the motives 

and behaviour of the Soviets and the Germans not 

simply as oppressors, but as human beings. Hers is an 

extraordinary story of courage and will. 

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41 



World 

42 

The life story of „Rysiek” 

(Stanisław Aronson’s code 

name) is so extraordinary as 

to seem almost impossible. 

He survived the ghetto 

and fought valiantly in the 

Warsaw Uprising. He served 

as a soldier both in the Polish 

army under general Anders, 

and the Israel Defense 

Forces. These unique 

experiences make him an 

authority fi gure. If you want 

to learn the complicated truth 

about Polish-Jewish history, 

this book is a must-read. 

Norman Davies 


About the authors: 

Patrycja Bukalska (born 

1972) is a journalist 

regularly contributing to 

the Tygodnik Powszechny 

weekly. Her texts have also 

been published by Więź 

and the Polish editions of 

Newsweek and National 

Geographic. She did 

volunteering work at the 

Oral History Archive, as well 

as a guide at the Warsaw 

Uprising Museum. What she 

likes best about her work is 

listening to real life stories. 

She lives in Warsaw with 

„Rysiek is in Warsaw! You 

must go and see him. He’s 

staying at Bristol”. 

Danuta’s voice over the 

phone was clearly excited and 

the matter seemed urgent. 

But who was Rysiek? And 

why did she think I should 

see him? 

That is how Patrycja 

Bukowska begins her book. 

A few words exchanged 

on the phone led to her 

meeting Stanisław Aronson, 

“Rysiek”, a character that 

defi es stereotypes. 

History gave him a good 

tumble. He spent his 

her husband, two sons and 

two dogs. 

Stanisław Aronson was 

born in a Jewish family in 

Warsaw on May 6, 1925. 

Before World War II he lived 

in Łódź. Having escaped 

from the train from the 

Warsaw ghetto to the Nazi 

concentration camp in 

Treblinka, he joined the 

Home Army in Warsaw in 

January 1943 and became a 

soldier of “Andrzej’s Group”. 

He was severely wounded 

in the Warsaw Uprising of 

1944. After fl eeing Poland 

childhood in Łodź and the 

Soviet occupation in Lvov. 

He escaped from the train 

heading to the Nazi camp in 

Treblinka to fi ght in an elite 

detachment of the Polish 

Home Army. After the war 

he left Poland, fearing 

prosecution from the NKVD, 

the Russian secret police. 

Today, when Poland is free, 

he is rediscovering the 

lost land of his youth and 

working on the preservation 

of the memory of his 

brothers in arms. 

The juxtaposition of the 

author’s vivid narrative and 

Patrycja Bukalska 

and Stanisław Aronson 

Years of Turmoil 

in June 1945, he served 

in the 2 nd Polish corps 

stationed in Italy. In 1947 

he emigrated to Palestine 

and took part in Israel’s 

War of Independence, 

and in all subsequent 

wars fought by Israel 

until the Lebanese War. 

Married, with 

a daughter, a son and 

two grandchildren, he 

lives in Israel. He is the 

recipient of a staggering 

number of honours as an 

outstanding soldier, some 

bestowed twice, both in 

Poland and in Israel. 

NON-FICTION 

the sober voice of Aronson 

himself results in a unique 

portrayal of “Rysiek”. And 

can you think of a more 

exciting adventure than 

getting to know someone 

who says, “I really don’t 

know who I am, every time 

I think about it I seem to be 

a different person”?

Fr. Michał Heller 

The Philosophy of Nature: A Historical Sketch 


Fr. Michał Heller (b. 1936) 

is a philosopher, theologian, 

professor in the Philosophy 

Department at the 

Pontifi cal Academy of 

Theology (PAT) in Krakow 

(Poland), doctor honoris 

causa of the Academy of 

Mining and Metallurgy 

in Krakow, ordinary 

member of the Pontifi cal 

Academy of Sciences and 

the Petersburg Academy 

of Sciences, and also 

an associate member of 

NON-FICTION 

About: 

Fr. Heller’s The Philosophy 

of Nature is a new and 

considerably expanded 

edition of the popular The 

Philosophy of the World 

published by Znak in 

1992. The author gives 

an overview of the most 

important systems of 

nature in the history of 

European thinking, starting 

with the cosmology of Plato 

and ending with the Open 

Universe of Karl Popper, 

he presents a critical 

presentation of the methods 

used by contemporary 

the Vatican Astronomical 

Observatory. He has 

written about the following 

philosophical problems: 

physics of relativity, the 

philosophy of science, and 

the relationship between 

science and theology. His 

publications include The 

Evolution of the Cosmos and 

Cosmology (1983, 1985), 

The Theoretical Foundations 

of Cosmology (1988), The 

Physics of Movement and 

Space-time (1993), Time and 

philosophies of nature, and 

discusses philosophical 

controversies centered 

around the discoveries of 

20th century physics: the 

theory of relativity, quantum 

mechanics, and the unifi ed 

theory. The Philosophy 

of Nature is a fascinating 

and indispensable source 

of knowledge for both 

scientists interested 

in philosophy and 

philosophers analysing 

the relationship between 

philosophy and physics. 

Causality (2002). He is also 

the author of many popular 

introductions to the issues 

of the philosophy of nature, 

among them, Toward the 

Universe (1970), The Cosmic 

Adventure of the Wise Man 

(1994), Joy in Banach’s 

Spaces (1995), To Capture 

Becoming (1996). 

In March 2008 Fr. Heller 

was awarded the Templeton 

Prize. 

RIGHTS SOLD: 

Germany (Springer) 

ENGLISH TRANSLATION 

AVAILABLE 

43 


Children’s 

44 

books 


Przemysław Wechterowicz, 


Great Dreams 


Przemysław Wechterowicz says the following about his 

life: “My life would be boring and dull without children’s 

books – they add a cheerful glow to everything”. He lives 

in Warsaw. This is his fi rst book. 

Marta Ignerska (b. 1978) is a graduate of the Department 

of Graphic Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw 

(cum laude, 2005). Her work centers around illustrating, 

designing books, graphics, and she works with, among 

others, periodicals and publishers (Znak, Wytwórnia), 

TVP (Polish National Television), and is the graphic designer 

for the publisher of the National Gallery of Art, Zachęta. 

CHILDREN’S 

About: 

RIGHTS SOLD: 

Brazil (Editora Biruta) 

France (Global Arts) 

45 

A very big book about very big dreams. It contains twenty 

one illustrations, each presenting a captivating, colourful 

and imaginative realization of a sometimes surprising 

wish. The Carpet wants to fl y to Mars, Fire dreams about 

becoming a fi refi ghter, and the Well – about seeing the 

ocean. The original and humorous text by Wechterowicz 

has become an inspiration for Marta Ignerska’s vibrant 

illustrations, full of details and telling a narrative of their 

own. 


RIGHTS SOLD: 

France (Rue du monde) 

Spain (Zorro rojo) 

Korea (Borim Press) 

46 

About: 

Two very young and very imaginative artists found a very 

funny and original way to present how the food chain 

works in nature – starting from plants, to predators, and 

the animals feeding on dead organisms. The core of the 

book are black and white illustrations, which in a subtle 

way introduce the educational element and are easily 

grasped by children. 



Aleksandra Mizielińska, 


Who Eats Whom 

Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel Mizieliński graduated 

from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (Graphic Design 

Dept.) in 2007. In 2008 they were awarded the Book of the 

Year (IBBY POLAND) for their D.O.M.E.K. 

CHILDREN’S

Andrzej Maleszka 

Magic Tree. Tale 1. The Red Chair 


Andrzej Maleszka, fi lm director and the author of the 

Emmy-awarded script for the TV series for children The 

Magic Tree. The series received numerous prestigious 

awards including the EMMY AWARD (2007). It was shown 

in many countries throughout Europe including Germany, 

Sweden, Finland, Denmark and France, as well as 

around the world (Japan, Brazil, South Korea). Maleszka 

was a director of a feature fi lm The Magic Tree. Tale 1. The 

Red Chair, which premiered in autumn 2009. 

Maleszka is also the author of the script-based novel 

under the same title. 

CHILDREN’S 

About: 

It is a well-told, modern 

story of three Polish 

children who have to 

overcome many obstacles in 

order to win back to the love 

of their parents, engrossed 

by earning money. The 

world of Kuki, Tosia and 

Filip is strongly infl uenced 

by the magical world in the 

form of the red chair, made 

of the Magic Tree, endowed 

with many unusual powers. 

Thrilling and fast-paced, the 

book is a true page-turner. 

Book of the Year 2009 (IBBY 

POLAND) 

Excerpt: 

In May 2000 there was a terrible 

thunderstorm over the Warta 

valley. It lasted three days and 

three nights. Petrifi ed animals 

hid in the deepest burrows. 

Little children kept pillows over 

their heads so as not to hear 

the deafening roar of thunder. 

Electricity was cut off and the 

roofs swept off many houses by 

the howling wind. 

On the third day a lightning 

struck an enormous old oak 

tree on the hill. The tree split 

in half and collapsed. 

A tremor went through all the 

houses in the valley and the 

thunderstorm immediately 

stopped. No one knew then 

RIGHTS SOLD: 

Korea (Book Light) 

Serbia (Pro Polis Plus) 

47 

that it was no ordinary oak 

tree, but the Magic Tree. 

It had great and wonderful 

powers. 

It was hauled to the sawmill 

and sawed into long boards. 

A hundred objects were then 

made of its wood, and each 

retained a little bit of the 

Magic Tree’s power. Everyday 

things now had power the 

like of which the world had 

never known before. 

The objects were shipped to 

shops in various parts of 

the world and from that day 

on uncanny things began to 

happen. 


RIGHTS SOLD: 

Korea (Book Light) 

48 


Andrzej Maleszka 

Magic Tree. Tale 2. The Mystery of a Bridge 


Andrzej Maleszka, fi lm director and the author of the 

Emmy-awarded script for the TV series for children The 

Magic Tree. The series received numerous prestigious 

awards including the EMMY AWARD (2007). It was shown 

in many countries throughout Europe including Germany, 

Sweden, Finland, Denmark and France, as well as 

around the world (Japan, Brazil, South Korea). Maleszka 

was a director of a feature fi lm The Magic Tree. Tale 1. The 

Red Chair, which premiered in autumn 2009. 

Maleszka is also the author of the script-based novel 

under the same title. 

About: 

Kuki, Vicky and Melania 

must fi nd the Forgetting 

Bridge. They have to 

confront a great spider, 

an underground river and 

the dangerous three-eyed 

Greta. They have to save 

Filip, who infl uenced by 

magic fell in love with the 

wrong girl. Fortunately 

they get help form the best 

robot in the world, a geniu 

dog and Latte who is a truly 

wonderful cat. 

CHILDREN’S


Michał Rusinek (b. 

1972) is a writer and 

translator. Teaches 

theory of literature at the 

Jagiellonian University 

and is the secretary of the 

Nobel prize-winning poet 

Wisława Szymborska. He 

translated many children’s 

books, including Peter 

About: 

Little Chopin is the fi rst 

Polish picture book about 

the life of the one of the 

greatest composers of all 

times. Funny and at the 

same time informative, it 

explains how “little Freddy” 

became a composer and 

humorously describes some 

of his most famous works. 

The text is accompanied 

by vibrant colourful 

illustrations by Joanna 

Rusinek. 

Michał Rusinek 

Little Chopin 

Pan and Wendy by J.M. 

Barrie, Paddington Here 

and Now by Michael Bond 

and The Peanuts. He writes 

poetry for both adults and 

children, and is the author 

of the highly successful Do 

It, Swear. A Guidebook to 

Children’s Swearwords. 

CHILDREN’S 

Little Chopin has already 

been translated into ten 

languages as a part of the 

cultural program of the 

Polish Ministry of Foreign 

Affairs, and is one of the 

most important publications 

prepared for 2010 – the 

year of Frederic Chopin 

commemorating the 200 th 

anniversary of his birth. 

RIGHTS SOLD: 

Polish Institute Tallin 

Polish Institute Jerusalem 

Polish Institute Villnus 

49 



World 

50 



About: 

Joanna Olech 

Pompom’s Children 

Educated as a graphic designer, Joanna Olech has done 

numerous illustrations for children’s books, and is the 

laureate of several awards. Her literary debut, Dynastia 

Miziołków (The Miziolek Dynasty, 1994), is a realistic and 

very funny series of tales for ten to twelve year-olds. Her 

second literary effort is Gdzie diabeł mówi do usług (Where 

the Devil Speaks: At Your Service!, 1997). 

CHILDREN’S 

The famous dragon named Pompon who appeared in 

the Fis family through the sink drain married a pretty 

dragoness and has two children. It is a girl and a boy, 

Prudencja and Pulpet. They go to a normal school with the 

humans and are very smart students. They make friends 

with children and love to go to Halloween parties since 

their costumes are perfect. Together with their human 

friends they travel to Transylvania to fi nd their relatives. 

The journey is full of unusual adventures and funny events.

Joanna Olech 

Pompom the Sink Dragon 


Educated as a graphic designer, Joanna Olech has done 

numerous illustrations for children’s books, and is the 

laureate of several awards. Her literary debut, Dynastia 

Miziołków (The Miziolek Dynasty, 1994), is a realistic and 

very funny series of tales for ten to twelve year-olds. Her 

second literary effort is Gdzie diabeł mówi do usług (Where 

the Devil Speaks: At Your Service!, 1997). 

CHILDREN’S 

About: 

RIGHTS SOLD: 

Slovakia (Slovart) 

France (Flammarion) 

51 

Pompom the Sink Dragon is a very relevant history of 

a certain dragon. This dragon, named Pompom, appears 

in the Fis family home through their sink drain and stays 

with them. He grows quickly and matures intellectually. 

He becomes a talkative and audacious dragon with 

creative, yet sometimes dangerous, ideas which he 

puts into practice. He is the caretaker of Mr. and Mrs. 

Fis’ children, Malwina and Gniewosz, who once even 

took him to activities at an ecology school. This book is 

recommended for children from six to ten years of age. 

It is humorous in tenor, at the same time it makes great 

observations about family life and on top of that it is 

a satire of modern life. Joanna Olech is the author of the 

illustrations as well. 



Marcin Brykczyński (b. 1946) 

was educated in economics, 

for many years he was 

associated with propagating 

native culture as an assitant 

to Ludwig Zimmerer, which, 

as he underscores, was an 

important life-experience. 

52 

RIGHTS SOLD: 

France (Gallimard Jeunesse) 

Japan (RIC Publications) 

UK (WingedChariot 

Press) 

Brazil (Editora Biruta) 


AVAILABLE 

FRENCH EDITION 

AVAILABLE 

Marta Ignerska (b. 1978) 

is a graduate of the 

Department of Graphic 

Design at the Academy of 

Fine Arts in Warsaw (cum 

laude, 2005). Her work 

centers around illustrating, 

designing books, graphics, 

and she works with, 

among others, periodicals 

Marcin Brykczyński 


Joanna Olech 

The Pink Piglet 

and publishers (Znak, 

Wytwórnia), TVP (Polish 

National Television), and is 

the graphic designer for the 

publisher of the National 

Gallery of Art, Zachęta. 

Educated as a graphic 

designer, Joanna Olech has 

done numerous illustrations 

About: 

for children’s books, and 

is the laureate of several 

awards. Her literary debut, 

Dynastia Miziołków (The 

Miziolek Dynasty, 1994), is 

a realistic and very funny 

series of tales for ten to 

twelve year-olds. 

CHILDREN’S 

This simply incredible children’s tale tells the story 

of a Piglet, who does not accept himself as he is, and 

desperately wants to try being someone else. And so the 

Piglet takes a walk and asks the animals he meets for 

advice. 

Through its narrative The Pink Piglet demonstrates the 

value of friendship and helps each reader discover beauty 

within themselves. 

It is also an artistic book, with an unconventional set of 

illustrations by Marta Ignerska and Joanna Olech. This 

makes it a unique book on the Polish book market. The 

book’s author, Marcin Brykczyński, is a known translator 

and a distinguished author of children’s books. 

Marta Ignerska, for her illustrations and layout, and 

Joanna Olech, for her illustrations, both received 

honorable mentions in the IBBY competition for “2006 

Book of the Year.”

Notes 



Notes

Frankfurt Frankfurt 2011 - Znak Rights

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