women`s fiction - Prószyński i S-ka

Transcription

women`s fiction - Prószyński i S-ka
RIGHTS GUIDE
CONTACT DETAILS
e-mail: [email protected]
Agnieszka Sempolska
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
e-mail: [email protected]
ph. +48 22 278 17 41
Izabela Delesiewicz
FOREIGN RIGHTS
e-mail: [email protected]
ph. +48 22 278 17 35
Prószyński Media
Rzymowskiego 28
02-697 Warsaw, Poland
www.proszynski.pl
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2015-04-21 15:37:39
www.proszynski.pl
Indeks
CONTENTS
FICTION
LITERARY FICTION, p. 1
WOMEN`S FICTION, p. 6
CRIME & THRILLER, p. 32
CHILDREN`S FICTION, p. 45
NON-FICTION
BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR, p. 46
ABOUT US
Prószyński Media is one of the largest book publishing companies in
Poland. It has been operating since 1990 and today it publishes about
200 titles a year under Prószyński i S-ka imprint.
We publish Polish and foreign classics, modern fiction and non-fiction,
children’s and young adult titles as well as general interest books.
Among our writers there are outstanding Polish authors: Henryk
Jerzy Chmielewski, Maria Czubaszek, Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński,
Marek Harny, Grażyna Jeromin-Gałuszka, Stefan Kisielewski, Irena
Matuszkiewicz, Agnieszka Osiecka, Olga Rudnicka, Maria Ulatowska
and Tanya Valko.
Prószyński Media is constantly expanding its foreign fiction and
non-fiction list including such great authors as Virginia C. Andrews,
Orson Scott Card, Diana Chamberlain, Jeffery Deaver, Ursula K. Le
Guin, John Irving, Henry James, Stephen King, Dennis Lehane, Liane
Moriarty, Jodi Picoult, Terry Pratchett, Nora Roberts, John Steinbeck
and Amy Tan.
okladka_2.indd 2
FICTION
BIESIEKIRSKI BARTŁOMIEJ, Jasnowidz, p. 32
CZUPRYŃSKA SABINA, Kobiety z domu Soni, p. 6
CZUPRYŃSKA SABINA, Ta druga, słodka i ostra, p. 6
CZUPRYŃSKA SABINA, Zawirowanie, p. 1
FRYCZKOWSKA ANNA, Kobieta bez twarzy, p. 33
FRYCZKOWSKA ANNA, Kurort Amnezja, p. 7
FRYCZKOWSKA ANNA, Starsza pani wnika, p. 33
FRYCZKOWSKA ANNA, Z grubsza Wenus, p. 8
HARNY MAREK, Dwie kochanki, p. 2
HARNY MAREK, Pismak, p. 34
HARNY MAREK, W imię zasad, p. 34
JASZCZUK PAWEŁ, Akuszer śmierci, p. 35
JASZCZUK PAWEŁ, Marionetki, p. 36
JASZCZUK PAWEŁ, Plan Sary, p. 36
JEROMIN-GAŁUSZKA GRAŻYNA,
Długie lato w Magnolii, p. 10
JEROMIN-GAŁUSZKA GRAŻYNA,
Gdybyś mnie kochała, p. 11
JEROMIN-GAŁUSZKA GRAŻYNA,
Kobiety z Czerwonych Bagien, p. 11
JEROMIN-GAŁUSZKA GRAŻYNA, Magnolia, p. 10
JEROMIN-GAŁUSZKA GRAŻYNA, Złote nietoperze, p. 11
JEROMIN-GAŁUSZKA GRAŻYNA, Złoty sen, p. 9
KOŁCZEWSKA KATARZYNA, Idealne życie, p. 12
KOŁCZEWSKA KATARZYNA, Kto, jak nie ja?, p. 13
KOŁCZEWSKA KATARZYNA, Wbrew sobie, p. 13
KRUPSKA BEATA, Przygody Euzebiusza, p. 45
KRUPSKA BEATA, Sceny z życia smoków, p. 45
LEMBERG MATEUSZ M., Patron, p. 38
LEMBERG MATEUSZ M., Zasługa nocy, p. 37
MARAT JOANNA, Jedenaście tysięcy dziewic, p. 14
MARAT JOANNA, Monogram, p. 38
MATUSZKIEWICZ IRENA, Agencja Złamanych Serc, p. 16
MATUSZKIEWICZ IRENA, Dziewczyny do wynajęcia, p. 17
MATUSZKIEWICZ IRENA, Modliszka, p. 16
MATUSZKIEWICZ IRENA, Przerwana podróż, p. 15
MATUSZKIEWICZ IRENA, Przeklęte, zaklęte, p. 17
MATUSZKIEWICZ IRENA, Salonowe życie, p. 16
MATUSZKIEWICZ IRENA, Szepty, p. 17
MISZCZUK JOANNA, Córki swoich matek, p. 19
MISZCZUK JOANNA, Matki, żony, czarownice, p. 18
MISZCZUK JOANNA, Zalotnice i wiedźmy, p. 19
PACHOLSKI ARKADIUSZ, Niemra, p. 3
PIETRZYK IZABELA, Babskie gadanie, p. 21
PIETRZYK IZABELA, Histerie rodzinne, p. 21
PIETRZYK IZABELA, Rodzinny park atrakcji, p. 20
PIETRZYK IZABELA, Wieczór panieński, p. 21
PUZYŃSKA KATARZYNA, Motylek, p. 40
PUZYŃSKA KATARZYNA, Trzydziesta pierwsza, p. 40
PUZYŃSKA KATARZYNA, Więcej czerwieni, p. 40
PUZYŃSKA KATARZYNA, Z jednym wyjątkiem, p. 39
RAK RADOSŁAW, Kocham cię, Lilith, p. 4
RUDNICKA OLGA, Cichy wielbiciel, p. 43
RUDNICKA OLGA, Czy ten rudy kot to pies?, p. 43
RUDNICKA OLGA, Do trzech razy Natalie, p. 41
RUDNICKA OLGA, Drugi przekręt Natalii, p. 42
RUDNICKA OLGA, Fartowny pech, p. 42
RUDNICKA OLGA, Martwe jezioro, p. 43
RUDNICKA OLGA, Natalii 5, p. 42
SZWECHŁOWICZ JOANNA, Ostatnia wola, p. 44
SZWECHŁOWICZ JOANNA,
Tajemnica szkoły dla panien, p. 44
ULATOWSKA MARIA, Całkiem nowe życie, p. 24
ULATOWSKA MARIA, Domek nad morzem, p. 25
ULATOWSKA MARIA, Kamienica przy Kruczej, p. 24
ULATOWSKA MARIA, Pensjonat Sosnówka, p. 23
ULATOWSKA MARIA, Prawie siostry, p. 25
ULATOWSKA MARIA, Przypadki pani Eustaszyny, p. 24
ULATOWSKA MARIA, Rodzina z Sosnówki, p. 22
ULATOWSKA MARIA, Sosnowe dziedzictwo, p. 23
VALKO TANYA, Arabska córka, p. 27
VALKO TANYA, Arabska krew, p. 28
VALKO TANYA, Arabska księżniczka, p. 28
VALKO TANYA, Arabska żona, p. 27
VALKO TANYA, Miłość na bali, p. 26
VALKO TANYA, Okruchy raju, p. 27
ZACZYŃSKA MARIOLA, Kobieta z Impetem, p. 29
ZACZYŃSKA MARIOLA, Szkodliwy pakiet cnót, p. 29
ZIMNY-LOUIS MAGDALENA,
Kilka przypadków szczęśliwych, p. 30
ŻÓŁCIŃSKA WANDA, Najdroższa, p. 5
ŻUKOWSKA IZABELA, Skazy, p. 31
NON-FICTION
HOLLENDER BARBARA, Od Wajdy do Komasy, p. 46
OSIECKI JAN, Zbigniew Religa, p. 47
OZMINKOWSKI VIOLETTA, Michalina Wisłocka, p. 48
2015-04-21 15:38:47
LITERARY FICTION
SABINA CZUPRYŃSKA Sabina Czupryńska (born in 1977) made her debut in „FA-art”, published
a story collection The ten, who… and the novels The Women of Sonia’s
House, The Other One, Sweet and Hot and Turbulence. She works in the
theatre as a costume designer and a stylist (and of course, she will write
about it one day as well). She is permanent in her feelings towards:
cinema, new shoes and old newspapers which prompt her stories. She
could do without: winter.
see also: p. 6
Sabina Czupryńska
TURBULENCE
In the race towards perfection and satisfaction of needs, everyone will
find their own path.
Mila is an emotional extremist. Energy, excitement, eroticism – that’s
what defines them. For Augusta it is just the opposite – order,
proportions and beauty. And a man, or rather men. But the man – Robert
– is a symbol. A symbol of the modern times, where, in the sea of
unfulfilled needs, the means to satisfy them keep drifting on the waves.
Shrinks. Pills. Search for the lost role model. The women, required by the
world to be beautiful. The men, deprived of their potency by the same
world. Alcohol flowing into the throat, through the fingers – just like life.
Add sex, a few corpses and a lot of food. To cut the long story short:
a sometimes scary, sometimes funny book about the modern times.
SELECTED REVIEWS
Rarely are books so compelling. The rhythm of words and phrases,
deliberate and elaborate, makes Turbulence an alarming, hypnotizing
and captivating book. Czupryńska paints pictures before our eyes,
capturing emotion and showing neither too much, nor too little – just the
right amount to captivate the readers.
Patrycja Wanat, Radio TOK FM
BOOK DETAILS: Zawirowanie, novel
Prószyński Media 2015
296 pages
ISBN 978-83-7961-162-1 LITERARY FICTION
www.proszynski.pl
MAREK HARNY Marek Harny was born in Zabrze in 1946 and raised in his home town of
Nowy Sącz. He studied at the Technical School of Chemistry in Krakow
and obtained a degree in journalism from the University of Warsaw.
He changed professions multiple times – for a couple of years, he
had a blue-collar job in the Sulphur corporation in Tarnobrzeg. Later,
he worked as a journalist. He made his debut in 1975 with a story
collection Lift Me Up, Big Bird, which won the Stanisław Piętak Award.
He published several novels, including Born From the Wind, A Lesson of
Love, The Solitude of Wolves and The Traitor. He is also the author of
three crime stories about the investigating journalist Adam Bukowski
(The Hack, Everybody Sins and For Principles’ Sake). He lives in Krakow.
see also: p. 34
Marek Harny THE TWO LOVERS
An epic tale of the bitter history of Poles and Jews, of the painful
reckoning and the passage into adulthood.
Provence, the final years of the 20th century. The writer Marcin Cichy
is forced to make a reckoning of his life. He follows the traces of the
tragically deceased Maryla-Miriam, his first love, and tries to find his
own path, lost many years before somewhere between Nowy Sącz,
Krakow and Paris. The relationship with Agata, the new love of his life,
gives him new hope but also brings back old anxieties. They both need
to face the past.
SELECTED REVIEWS
In the times when many tales are told by writers who have nothing to
say, reading Marek Harny’s new book means facing a true, juicy, moving
and epic story. The Two Lovers are impressive in their scale, the detailed
descriptions and the author’s insight. Jarosław Czechowicz, literary critic
BOOK DETAILS: Dwie kochanki, novel
2
Prószyński Media 2015
632 pages
ISBN 978-83-7961-023-5 LITERARY FICTION
ARKADIUSZ PACHOLSKI
Arakdiusz Pacholski (born in Kalisz in 1964) – historian, writer, winner of
the Kościelski Prize. He wrote, among others, for the Parisian „Kultura”,
„Twórczość”, „Kwartalnik Artystyczny” and „Arkusz”. He published
essay collections: The Canticle of Creatures (1998), The View From the
Attic Window (1999), The Parisian Notebook (2000), The Landscape With
a Red Sun (2000), Home Wrestling (2003); a story collection Shining Over
the Depth (2003); novels: No-one From the Family (2005) and The Man
of a Hundred Faces (2006). He also created cycles of broadcasts for
Channel 2 of the Polish TV: Thinking Has a Past and Anxieties of the End
of the Millennium. He received the W.&N. Turzański Foundation Award
in Toronto for The Canticle of Creatures and the Kościelski Award (1999)
for The Canticle of Creatures and The View From the Attic Window.
Arkadiusz Pacholski THE KRAUT
The Kraut is a novel of manners perfectly capturing the reality of life in
Poland under German occupation.
Pacholski dissects the drama of people doomed to live in cruel times,
revises the national myths and takes a fresh look at the vital chapters
of Polish history – all with pinpoint precision.
Reichsgau Wartheland, final months of the German occupation of
Poland. Dorota Paleń, a young librarian recording German atrocities
in the Kalisz county, annoys her colleagues and her superiors in the
resistance movement with her independence and her civil courage.
One day, the girl faces a dilemma: is it more important to remain loyal
to her superiors or true to her values?
SELECTED REVIEWS
The Kraut is a book which you just can’t put down and which you can’t get
out of your head for months. In my opinion, it is one of the finest books
published in the recent months. (...) It is one of these novels that are just
too good to put any tag on. It’s impossible to read it on the bus or in the
subway. It requires exclusivity, it has the reader involved after the first
five pages.
Sabina Bauman, „Nowe Książki” monthly
BOOK DETAILS: Niemra, novel
Prószyński Media 2011
568 pages
ISBN 978-83-7648-954-4 LITERARY FICTION
www.proszynski.pl
RADEK RAK Radek Rak (born in 1987) – trained as veterinary surgeon and works as
one. He lives in Dębica in the Subcarpathia region. He is a local patriot
and a fan of the mountains, especially of Low Beskids. He published
stories in „Nowa Fantastyka”, „Lampa” and the „Esensja” e-zine. I love
you, Lilith is his first novel.
SELECTED REVIEWS
Radek Rak already conquered the territories of the Polish language which
many writers never reach. (...) Trance-like, beautifully written prose.
Wit Szostak, writer
Radek Rak
I LOVE YOU, LILITH
A beautifully written tale of search for love and fulfilment, of love and
life that are sometimes inseparable.
A young man, Robert, comes to a sanatorium in Low Beskids to rest and
recover. But will that be possible if he devotes almost his entire time
to the meetings with the beautiful, diabolical painter Iwona and the
intriguing doctor, Małgorzata? To make matters worse, he is captivated
by a book about a Lvov detective Jesipowicz and the latter becomes his
faithful companion and advisor in love affairs.
After Robert and Iwona spend a night together, the painter disappears
and it turns out that no one in the sanatorium remembers such patient.
Could it all be Robert’s illusion? Or is it all a novel?
SELECTED REVIEWS
Radosław Rak’s first novel is like the first love: defenseless, candid, naive
in is courage and feverish. Read it gently – the Leśmian-like bubbles of
youthful passion burst all too easily in the heavy hands of the prose.
Jacek Dukaj, writer I love you, Lilith is a deceptive tale. It begins innocently enough, but soon
drags us into the strange land of the soul, which we usually try to avoid.
Wit Szostak, writer
BOOK DETAILS: Kocham cię, Lilith, novel
4
Prószyński Media 2014
344 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-737-3 LITERARY FICTION
WANDA ŻÓŁCIŃSKA
Wanda Żółcińska graduated from the University of Warsaw with
a degree in Italian philology. Journalist. If she could, she would spend
her entire days reading, travelling and observing people. She lives in
the idyllic suburbs of Warsaw, raising two sons and being happy.
SELECTED REVIEWS
In The Dearest, Żółcińska touches upon an extremely universal topic. She
discusses responsibility – being entangled in it, rejecting it and forcing
oneself to accept it – as well as emotional evolution and search for oneself
and, last but not least, the dream of freedom which, when fulfilled,
may lead to both deliverance and damnation. An excellent, mature,
thoughtful, wise novel. Ambiguous, providing countless possibilities of
interpretation. Important.
Magdalena Knedler, obliczakultury.pl
Wanda Żółcińska
THE DEAREST
A powerful first novel by the author who dissects the human
relationships, checking their authenticity – all in a great style.
A touching image of a women enslaved by responsibilities.
The objective is to, seemingly without effort, achieve success, have
a beautiful family and be happy with yourself.
No chance. The incurably ill mother, panic attacks and guilt
accompanying every decision are the everyday enemies, defeated by
the means of a forced smile. Effectively. Until…
A generational tale of today’s women on the verge of irreversible life
decisions, settling down, changes.
SELECTED REVIEWS
Very well written, poignant and observant.
Magdalena Tulli, writer
A life torn to pieces. A dying mother. Two men, poles asunder, both
attract. A woman in a mess, splitting hairs over everything and anything.
What now? What about her? A great debut novel written in a nervous
staccato, as if the protagonist is no longer able to take a breath. As if she
could only rely on the simplest sentences.
Paulina Reiter, „Wysokie Obcasy” magazine
BOOK DETAILS: Najdroższa, novel
Prószyński Media 2015
348 pages
ISBN 978-83-7961-123-2 WOMEN’S FICTION
www.proszynski.pl
see also: p. 1
Sabina Czupryńska THE OTHER ONE, SWEET AND HOT
Krystyna, Jacek, Karol and a tale of a question not asked and an answer
not given. An answer which may not exist at all, or which maybe is so
obvious that it makes it unnecessary. Women desire him, men drink
with him, his father loves him, his mother can’t cope with him. Who
is he? A perfect lover. A hopeless husband. An unfulfilled father. An
abandoned son. A reliable friend. A true professional. A someone.
SELECTED REVIEWS
The Other One, Sweet and Hot is as compelling as the multi-layered
events in the small, dusty house. You can feel vibrations in the air.
Something is ticking. Will it explode?
Beata Sadowska, Chilli ZET
BOOK DETAILS: Ta druga, słodka i ostra, novel
Prószyński Media 2013
312 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-249-1 Sabina Czupryńska THE WOMEN OF SONIA’S HOUSE
Five generations of women. They want to be beautiful and loved. They
need to fight for themselves and for their happiness.
The story begins in a small town and ends in a big city. It is like a family
album with yellowed pictures, on which a sensitive photographer
captured five outstanding women: the great-grandmother Antonia,
her daughter Julia, her granddaughters Basia and Jagoda and her
great-granddaughter Sonia. Blood ties between them are like a chain
of hands holding one another and passing on all the beautiful things
they have to offer and all the deeply hidden secrets.
Each of the women loves, misses, desires, learns to live, looks for solutions,
conquers and abandons, looks great with a cigarette, behind the wheel
of a Fiat 126p or in a designer dress. Each of them meets a man, or a few,
and tries to free herself from a secret from the past, to find happiness, to
change the fate unknowingly determined by her mother, grandmother,
great-grandmother. Each of them has a chance to do it.
SELECTED REVIEWS
It is an utterly feminine book, but without the female chatter. It is sad, but it
gives hope that there one can always learn to love. It is wise and charming.
Joanna Habiera, „Magazyn Literacki Książki”
BOOK DETAILS: Kobiety z domu Soni, novel
6
Prószyński Media 2012
472 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-035-0 WOMEN’S FICTION
ANNA FRYCZOWSKA
Anna Fryczkowska – writer, scriptwriter. She studied Italian philology
and lived in Italy for some time. She worked as an interpreter, helping
Italians to do business in our country. As a journalist, she travelled the
length and breadth of Poland several times, collecting materials for
her cover stories. She’s enrolled in gender studies at the University of
Warsaw; she writes scripts for TV series. She’s interested in medicine,
she often reads about death, she writes a lot about the female body.
She lives in the Żoliborz borough of Warsaw. She only goes to the
seaside in the winter.
see also: p. 33
Anna Fryczowska
AMNESIA RESORT
One of them has forgotten everything, the other would rather not
remember. The master of suspense in her new novel of love and
vengeance.
Two women and a holiday resort in the middle of the winter. Wanda,
a thirty-year-old widow comes to Brzegi to wreak vengeance upon
the woman who ruined her life. The twenty-year old Marianna has no
memory of the role she played – she lost her memory following the tragic
accident and she came here to recover under the care of her fiancé.
The confrontation of the two women after the turbulences in their
lives proves surprising both for the protagonists and for the reader.
Love and loss, crime and punishment, escape from the past and search
for identity. A dark and very emotional novel, with suspense worthy of
Hitchcock himself.
SELECTED REVIEWS
Each book by Anny Fryczkowska is a new adventure – and a surprise
– for me as a reader. After the splendid black comedy The Elderly Lady
Investigates, the author created a great psychological thriller. Amnesia
Resort is unforgettable.
Marta Mizuro, „Zwierciadło” magazine
BOOK DETAILS: Kurort Amnezja, novel
Prószyński Media 2014
424 pages
ISBN 978-83-7961-061-7 WOMEN’S FICTION
www.proszynski.pl
Anna Fryczowska
VENUS, BROADLY SPEAKING
An intelligent, ironic and perverse story of how Jasia and Baśka, two
woman who seem to have nothing in common, got fat and thin.
Beauty may be led to waste for many reasons, both legitimate and
invented. Yet the outcome is the same: slimming holidays. Two women
whose massive silhouettes conceal many secrets. Both trained to look
good. They try to improve their lives, but their attempts are not always
whole-hearted. Burdens from the past make it harder to fight for
a lighter body.
Lose weight! That’s the purpose in life for Baśka, thirty-something,
furious and tangled. Lose weight? That’s the question for Janina, by
several years her elder, cheerful and seemingly calm. They both have
obesity problems, but during the holidays they will cure their souls
more than their bodies.
SELECTED REVIEWS
The world needs women. All kinds of women. We mustn’t let ourselves be
pushed into any patterns, be their mental or physical. This is a book about
women’s hell based on cultural enslavement which is mistaken for one’s
vision of a happy life. But even in hell, there is hope.
Katarzyna Miller, psychotherapist, writer, poet
For me, Venus, broadly speaking is a psychological study of a person
lost not only in the world, but also within their own mind, determined to
satisfy the needs and the expectations of others. A brilliant book: witty,
humorous and meaningful. I recommend it to attentive readers, who
expect something more of their books. It is worth it!
Agnieszka Lingas-Łoniewska, agnesscorpio.blogspot.com
Reading Anna Fryczkowska’s novel allows us to reflect on how badly we
can hurt ourselves. It is worth giving some serious thought!
Monika Stachura, „Zwierciadło”
BOOK DETAILS: Z grubsza Wenus, novel
8
Prószyński Media 2014
304 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-738-0 WOMEN’S FICTION
GRAŻYNA JEROMIN-GAŁUSZKA
Grażyna Jeromin-Gałuszka holds a degree in library science from the
University of Warsaw and in scriptwriting from the Łódź Film School
(PWSFTviT). Her poems and short stories were published in magazines and
anthologies. She is the winner of a nationwide film topic competition held
by the Script Agency and the „Film” weekly. She co-authors the script of one
of the popular TV series. Her first novel, Golden bats, won the „Colors of
Life” literary competition. She also wrote the novels The Eyes of Marzanna
M., The Women of Czerwone Bagna, Don’t Leave Me, Magnolia, If You Loved
Me, The Long Summer in Magnolia. She lives in a village near Radom.
SELECTED REVIEWS
Jeromin-Gałuszka sees the same world as we do and yet she notices so much
more in it, and she is able to describe it with great accuracy and sensitivity, in
a simple, modern, often very straightforward language.
Janusz Leon Wiśniewski, author of Loneliness on the Net
Grażyna Jeromin-Gałuszka
THE GOLDEN DREAM
A story of what passes and what stays. Of a great love which destroyed
a friendship and of a friendship which defeated a difficult love.
An old villa in a sleepy resort and inside – the women which happened
to meet again after many years.
Lili, the eccentric owner of the villa, declared a long, long time ago that
she would no longer speak to her friend – and she stayed true to her
word for sixty-five years.
Ada came here as a child, accompanied by her mother, to treat her ill
heart. Her mysterious stay extends throughout the summer.
Kalina had all it takes to become a great artist, but she wasted
everything in her life, including her numerous talents.
Lili, Ada, Kalina and the old Józefa, the former versatile housekeeper,
now forbidden to do anything, spend many months under one roof.
Their anger, resentment and most of all, indifference, slowly give way
to a belief that something can be salvaged from any life, if only you
fight for it.
Wiktor, who begins and ends this tale, did not find himself there by
accident. Nothing there happened by accident, even though it all
started accidentally.
BOOK DETAILS: Złoty sen, novel
Prószyński Media 2015
440 pages
ISBN 978-83-8069-001-1 WOMEN’S FICTION
www.proszynski.pl
Grażyna Jeromin-Gałuszka
MAGNOLIA
Filip Spalski is a pilot, he loves flying, he’s been doing it all his life. One
day, he comes home after a long trans-Atlantic flight, only to learn that
his wife has left. She had had enough of waiting – for him, for a child,
for their life together. Filip suddenly realizes that he has nothing left.
He is alone, without any friends or family. He gets into the car and
drives forward. He stops at the end of the world – in a small village in the Bieszczady
Mountains, where time passes so slowly that everyone buys last
week’s newspapers. At the train station, which is closed out of season,
he meets a man whose situation is similar. He buys a neglected
guesthouse named Magnolia from the stranger, and the extraordinary
women who work there will change his life… BOOK DETAILS: Magnolia, novel
Prószyński Media 2013
384 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-513-3
Grażyna Jeromin-Gałuszka
THE LONG SUMMER
IN MAGNOLIA
The Magnolia guesthouse lies in the Bieszczady Mountains, far
from the main roads. The unique ambience of the place is created
by outstanding women: Czesia Gawińska, an excellent cook, Doris,
a painter, Małgorzata, the waitress and Marlena, who drops by every
day for a cup of coffee. One day, Maurycy Murawski, the author of
once-popular crime stories arrives in search of the spot which long ago
inspired him to write his first novel. Maurycy meets a retired Police Commissioner, who shows a photo of
a lost girl to anyone who stops before the shop in the middle of the
village. He has been doing it for twelve years. The crime story writer
and the ex-cop take a close look at tragic events from the past which
seem to have absolutely nothing in common with the present in which
the women of Magnolia play leading roles. Up to a point.
SELECTED REVIEWS
In her prose, Grażyna Jeromin-Gałuszka is faithful to the proven solutions
– she inserts elements of a crime story or even of a thriller to the smalltown space, but she never forgets about the psychology of the characters.
tu-czytam.blogspot.com
BOOK DETAILS: Długie lato w Magnolii, novel
10
Prószyński Media 2014
400 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-756-4 WOMEN’S FICTION
Grażyna Jeromin-Gałuszka
IF YOU LOVED ME
Maksym Bromski, who is now a manager in a motoring company, used to
spend all his holidays in the country, at his grandparents, as a boy. It was
there that his only cousin, Andrzej, disappeared fifteen years ago, a day after
his own wedding. Maksym keeps going back there, both physically and in
his memories. People who live on the two banks of the same river are still
the most important ones to him – and the only ones he has left. Dramatic
events from the past have their consequences in the present – Bromski is still
unaware of that fact when he wakes up one night in a hotel room, next to the
body of an unknown woman.
BOOK DETAILS: Gdybyś mnie kochała, novel
Prószyński Media 2013
344 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-648-2 Grażyna Jeromin-Gałuszka
THE WOMEN OF CZERWONE BAGNA
It has always been the women who lived in Czerwone Bagna. Men would
appear for a short time, then they would leave. Forever. A curse or just chance?
Julianna, Amelia, Rozalia, Anastazja – generation after generation, they learned
to fight the fate which didn’t spare them. This place was their asylum, giving
them strength and a feeling of security. Kornelia, the youngest in the family
of reclusive women, comes to Czerwone Bagna to recover after the recent
tough experiences. She also gave birth to a daughter and she also raises her
alone. The hundredth birthday of great-grandmother Roza is approaching. For
Kornelia, it will mark the beginning of something new...
BOOK DETAILS: Kobiety z Czerwonych Bagien, novel Prószyński Media 2010 288 pages ISBN 978-83-7648-961-2 Grażyna Jeromin-Gałuszka
GOLDEN BATS
Winner of the „Colors of Life” literary competition.
The first novel by Grażyna Jeromin-Gałuszka is a charming story of two women
who, despite their different nature, must face the twisted fate together. They
both loved the same man and they have both been hurt by him. Together, they
unveil his dark secret. Owing to plot constructed in an interesting manner,
the lively dialogue and the crime thread, the subsequent scenes of the novel
are cinematic in their nature. The book is illustrated with the pictures of both
protagonists, Lora and Matylda with their country house, and their wicker
baskets made by Mateusz, in the background.
BOOK DETAILS: Złote nietoperze, novel Prószyński Media 2007 256 pages ISBN 978-83-7469-504-6 WOMEN’S FICTION
www.proszynski.pl
KATARZYNA KOŁCZEWSKA
Katarzyna Kołczewska – doctor by education, entrepreneur by
choice, writer by passion. Owner of an SME, mentor, business coach,
blogger at „Wyższy Poziom Przedsiębiorczości” („Higher Level of
Entrepreneurship”), author of popular novels of manners and stories.
Still immersed in medicine which remains her professional interest and
about which she writes in her books. Against oneself is her third novel
after the immensely successful Who but me? and The Perfect Life.
Katarzyna Kołczewska
THE PERFECT LIFE
The gripping, surprising tale of the life of a woman whom no one really
knew. Elżbieta, CEO of a pharmaceutical company, takes everyone
by surprise. Her husband, her family, her collaborators – no one
understands why she did it. She had it all – a great job, a beautiful
home, a loving husband, perfect children.
Ewa, an unwealthy, frustrated teacher from Sandomierz, cannot cope
with what her sister did for a long time. But most of all, she cannot
understand what pushed Elżbieta to make this inexplicable decision.
Or maybe it wasn’t her decision at all?
Ewa knows she needs to go to Warsaw. She needs to find out what was
really happening in Elżbieta’s life. Was it really as perfect as it seemed?
SELECTED REVIEWS
The Perfect Life confirms Kołczewska’s extraordinary gift for showing people
in quasi-everyday situations which are, in fact, extreme. This fascinating story
shows, sometimes jocularly and sometimes painfully, the deceptiveness of our
conviction that our relatives are the people we know. How many secrets, lies
and half-truths does it take to live „the perfect life”? In The Perfect Life, there
are no easy answers. There is life – in its most interesting, sensational form.
Jakub Winiarski, writer, critic, writing coach
BOOK DETAILS: Idealne życie, novel
12
Prószyński Media 2014
384 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-717-5
WOMEN’S FICTION
Katarzyna Kołczewska
Against oneself
No-one can be saved by force. You need to mature to accept help.
Ewelina has just one desire – to have a child. She concentrates on
herself and on her experiences, egoistically manipulates the people
closest to her, fails to notice others’ problems – she and her problems
are the only thing that counts. She acts like a petulant, spoilt child.
She estranges her loving, dedicated husband, her mother who tries to
protect her daughter against problems at any cost, and her sister – the
one who sacrificed the most for Ewelina.
When the family past is brought to light and the consequences of
Ewelina’s own surprising decisions shake her self-confidence and ruin
her comfortable life, she will realize how much she needs to change.
But won’t it be too late?
BOOK DETAILS: Wbrew sobie, novel
Prószyński Media 2015
ISBN 978-83-8069-017-2
Katarzyna Kołczewska
WHO BUT ME?
An extremely touching, painfully frank tale of a difficult love,
responsibility and finding happiness where one has never looked for it.
Anna never wanted to have children. She never liked them. She never
took any interest in them. The fate decides for her. When her niece
and her husband die in a tragic accident, it turns out that Anna is the
only person who can take care of the three-year-old orphaned Ola.
Otherwise the girl will be sent to an orphanage.
Will the woman, addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs and
struggling with a trauma, be capable of heroism and of facing her
weaknesses, her fears and the demons of the past? The child’s
happiness is at stake and in the fight for it, anything goes: blackmail,
manipulation, bribery. Will the three-year-old be able to accept the
whole new life that no one has prepared her for?
SELECTED REVIEWS
The book by Kasia Kołczewska is painfully true. It is not a sweet tale of an
unequivocally good parent and of an unequivocally good or bad child. The
idea behind this tale is that parenthood is the hardest and at the same
time, the most beautiful experience in life.
Małgorzata Ohme, psychologist
BOOK DETAILS: Kto, jak nie ja?, novel
Prószyński Media 2013
480 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-610-9 WOMEN’S FICTION
www.proszynski.pl
JOANNA MARAT
Joanna Marat – lives in Warsaw and in Gdansk. She made her debut in
2011, in the Back Alleys of Crime anthology. Her first book was a novel
of manners, Joanna’s Sins. She won the crime short story competition
at the 2010 International Crime Fiction Festival.
In 2014 her first crime story, The Monogram, was published. Recently,
her short story The Chapel of Eleven Thousand Virgins received
a distinction in the „Literary Tour of Gdansk” competition.
see also: p. 38
Joanna Marat
ELEVEN THOUSAND VIRGINS
It is not a saga – the thread snaps somewhere mid-stitch and instead
of a proud parade of subsequent generations, the embroidery only
encompasses single – and unique – people. It is as if some malevolent
tailor unraveled the solid stitches and left the entire family tacked.
Gizela, Bela, Erika and Roma lived in the era whose pace was set by the
marching armies. What is worse, the infallible spirit of the history made
them play the worst possible role, that of a war prize.
Anka is the granddaughter of one of these women and has ties with
the other three that she knows nothing – or wants to know nothing
– about. For her own reasons, she likes Santa Clause, but most of all
– peace and quiet. Keenly aware of the family hell which she managed
to escape, she tries to cut herself off from the world by a bell-glass
painted Prussian blue. The color is highly symbolic and evocative of the
cold Baltic Sea where MS Wilhelm Gustloff sank one January night in
1945. The six thousand casualties included the first owner of the villa
which Anka and her husband moved into many years later. The villa at
Polanki street likes to change owners. Anka will have to face much more
than losing a house and accept the fact that her glass is half-empty.
BOOK DETAILS: Jedenaście tysięcy dziewic, novel
14
Prószyński Media 2015
456 pages
ISBN 978-83-7961-200-0 WOMEN’S FICTION
IRENA MATUSZKIEWICZ
Irena Matuszkiewicz – philologist by education, journalist for a number
of years, currently a popular author of novels of manners. She made
her debut with The Heartbreak Agency, then she proceeded to publish:
Not Only Love Games, Girls for Rent, The Salon Life, Cursed and Spelled,
The Awakening, The Whispers, The Mantis and The Interrupted Journey.
In her books, she aptly reflects contemporary Poland, creating vivid
characters and extraordinary situations, but she also often reaches
into the past – to the lives of the mothers and grandmothers of her
protagonists.
Irena Matuszkiewicz
THE INTERRUPTED JOURNEY
The worst always comes suddenly and at the wrong moment. On
Monday, the protagonists of The Interrupted Journey still had their
plans and their goals and on Tuesday morning, all their projects ceased
to matter. An accident caused by a couple of irresponsible madmen
meant the end of the journey for Zofia and Michał and an unexpected
and very long interruption for Antonina and the others. Life dislikes
void – the new situation imposes new plans and objectives and
constitutes a significant challenge not only for the victims, but also for
their dearest.
SELECTED REVIEWS
Irena Matuszkiewicz reminds us of how fragile – and how significant
– life is. Her tale is enchanting, true and wise (…). There are no clearcut answers in this story. We find out that people are not unambiguously
good or bad and that it is only their decisions that may be wrong. (…) one
thing is certain – Matuszkiewicz’s protagonists feel very real.
Magdalena Kijewska, blogger
BOOK DETAILS: Przerwana podróż, novel
Prószyński Media 2014
384 pages
ISBN 978-83-7961-044-0 WOMEN’S FICTION
www.proszynski.pl
Irena Matuszkiewicz
THE MANTIS
There was every reason to expect that the beginning of the new millennium
will be a string of successes for Milena and Lucjan Płoszyńskis, both in their
professional and in their private lives. However, the fate decided differently.
The relationship, which seemed happy, suddenly falls apart and the spouses
go their separate ways. Milena doesn’t plan to seek happiness in the arms of
another husband – the status of an independent, self-reliant woman suits her
very well. She has time for her near and dear ones, as well as for everyone in
need of her help. However, she soon finds out that people, herself included,
resemble the mantis...
BOOK DETAILS: Modliszka, novel
Prószyński Media 2013
488 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-406-8 Irena Matuszkiewicz
THE SALON LIFE
At first, there is nothing or very little in common between the protagonists
of the Salon Life: Dorota, the owner of a beauty salon, Gabriela, the insecure
mother and wife and Leon, the genius chemist and wheatgrass researcher.
Dorota has the youth, the friends and the acquaintances, but dreams of her
own family, for Gabriela it is just the opposite, whereas Leon is a modern
hermit. They all have their plans and their goals, but they live more or less
peacefully – until the moment Leon’s invention falls into Dorota’s hands,
causing much havoc. Horror in a beauty salon? Why not, if treated with warmth
and humor, and full of apt observations concerning the salon regulars.
BOOK DETAILS: Salonowe życie, novel Prószyński Media 2013 (first edition 2004)
ISBN 978-83-7839-486-0 432 pages
Irena Matuszkiewicz
THE HEARTBREAK AGENCY
A story of four young women with a past, living in Toruń, in a concrete block of
flats from the Communist times. The protagonist, Marta, blindly searches for
happiness. The other three don’t even think of happiness anymore – they are
struggling to stay afloat and to make ends meet. They all paid dearly for their
naivety and for investing their feelings in the wrong person. Now, thanks to the
brisk Marta, they form a four-person Heartbreak Agency.
BOOK DETAILS: Agencja Złamanych Serc, novel Prószyński Media 2012 (first edition 2000)
ISBN 978-83-7839-068-8 16
532 pages
WOMEN’S FICTION
Irena Matuszkiewicz
GIRLS FOR RENT
The fate usually gives us these things that we least care for...
Zuzanna has a diploma, loving parents, a doctor boyfriend who adores her,
a cheaply rented bedsit – and even a job. Life just couldn’t be any better!
Especially considering the fact that Zuza doesn’t lack beauty, intelligence,
principles – even virtues – either. She also has a half-sister, Weronika, but the
two don’t get along too well. Unfortunately, the fate may be perverse at times.
She loses her job, her boyfriend… When her sister invites her to stay over, little
does Zuzanna expect that Weronika has just started an evil game.
BOOK DETAILS: Dziewczyny do wynajęcia, novel Prószyński Media 2012 (first edition 2003)
ISBN 978-83-7839-288-0 408 pages
Irena Matuszkiewicz
CURSED AND SPELLED
Five women, four generations and one curse which was cast on the grandmother
almost a century ago and affected all the distaff side of the family.
The curse never lost its power, even though the women lived in various times,
circumstances and locations, even though they themselves have changed. The
eldest of the family, Marcysia, was an analphabet, her granddaughter became
a doctor. Did the gypsy’s curse really change the lives of the five women, or did
they help the fate so that the unavoidable may occur? The answer is given by
the youngest in the family, Agnieszka, quite a modern girl. And yet it is not the
curse that matters most...
BOOK DETAILS: Przeklęte, zaklęte, novel Prószyński Media 2012 (first edition 2007)
ISBN 978-83-7839-179-1 368 pages
Irena Matuszkiewicz
THE WHISPERS
When Felicja Lipecka starts to ail, she moves in with her daughter and her
family. She wants to take care of the house and the garden, make preserves
and infusions, be a „true” grandma. However, she is in for a disappointment
– the house is crowded, but totally silent. Everything changes when she joins
the „someladies” group. The „someladies” are not combative thirty-somethings
fighting against time, but mature, or actually even „overdue” ladies. Among
them, Funia is the woman she would like to be at home – she has listeners that
lend ther her ears and she finds a lust for life. It is also among them that she
discovers the truth about herself and makes her biggest wish come true.
BOOK DETAILS: Szepty, novel
Prószyński Media 2011
320 pages
ISBN 978-83-7648-580-5 WOMEN’S FICTION
www.proszynski.pl
JOANNA MISZCZUK
Joanna Miszczuk (born in 1964) – mentally, though rarely physically,
an inhabitant of Wrocław. She currently lives and works in Berlin. She
has a teenage daughter. She holds a degree in pedagogy from the
University of Wrocław. She has moved eight times, changed jobs six
times, learned to speak four languages, lived in Germany, France and
Poland. She is a hopeless romantic, though also extremely orderly
and logical. Her favorite places include Wrocław, Montmartre in Paris,
Berlin and Sopot. She writes novels, skits and children’s poems.
Joanna Miszczuk
MOTHERS, WIVES AND WITCHES
A saga of several generations of women who overcome adversities
owing to their strength, and to the gift passed on from generation to
generation. Mothers, Wives and Witches is a story of wise and resourceful women
who should go from strength to strength and yet they often faced
defeat only because they dared to love. It is a story of love and betrayal,
but most of all – of a great secret. When the world collapses around the protagonist, a happy 40-old
married woman, another door opens before her. Asia builds her life
anew and a fortunate coincidence allows her to discover her family’s
past and her own origins. The ordinary life of a modern woman
(conjugal infidelity, raising a child, losing a job, trying to make ends
meet) changes when she discovers the secret behind the surprising
stories of many generations of women from her family. The will of
Laverna, the protagonist’s great-grandmother, discovered after many
years, is a true family treasure, impossible to convert into money. BOOK DETAILS: Matki, żony, czarownice, novel
18
Prószyński Media 2011
496 pages
ISBN 978-83-7648-917-9
WOMEN’S FICTION
Joanna Miszczuk
COQUETTES AND WITCHES
The fascinating stories of the protagonists of Mothers, Wives and
Witches continued. Coquettes and Witches is a book about love, passions in life and a great
secret. It is a story of an ordinary women from a family of extraordinary
women. Their intelligence, ambition and hunger for knowledge were
supposed to make them successful, but things did not always end
well. The protagonist, Asia, is forced to go to Berlin with her daughter
and start afresh once again. All goes well until the moment her exhusband appears again in her safe, peaceful life. Meanwhile, through
the documents inherited from her great-grandmother Laverna, Asia
discovers the surprising stories of subsequent women from her family,
full of twists, desire and passion. Stories that have one common
denominator: great, true love… Does such love await Asia as well?
BOOK DETAILS: Zalotnice i wiedźmy, novel
Prószyński Media 2012
424 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-291-0
Joanna Miszczuk
THEIR MOTHER’S DAUGHTERS
The fascinating stories of the protagonists of Mothers, Wives and
Witches and Coquettes and Witches continued. Berlin, 2011. Joanna Górecka, called Asia by her friends, has finally
found the love of her life. Only a couple of months remain until
her wedding with Kemal. Meanwhile, Asia discovers the stories of
subsequent outstanding women from her family. Aurora, the friend
of Galileo, the ruthless Olimpia, Madelaine – the ambitious lady-inwaiting of the French queen Marie Leszczyńska. Each of them lived
a life full of emotions, passions and secrets… But Asia’s life also
abounds in thrilling and dramatic events. The long-awaited wedding
and the dream job are in danger as Julian, Joanna’s first husband, does
all he can to harm his ex-wife. All of this suddenly becomes irrelevant
when Kamila, Asia’s twelve-year-old daughter, is in danger...
SELECTED REVIEWS
Miszczuk uses dialogue skillfully, is a pretty good storyteller and can
make even the most unbelievable story credible and interesting.
kulturaonline.pl
BOOK DETAILS: Córki swoich matek, novel
Prószyński Media 2013
448 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-605-5 WOMEN’S FICTION
www.proszynski.pl
IZABELA PIETRZYK
Izabela Pietrzyk (born in 1966) lives in Szczecin. She is a philologist, she
teaches English at the University of Szczecin. She published scientific
texts on linguistics. She is the author of the very well-received novels:
Women’s Talk, The Bachelorette Party, Family Hysterias and Family
Theme Park.
SELECTED REVIEWS
I love Izabela Pietrzyk’s humor! She describes human relationships
perfectly and presents them in a distorted mirror.
Novels by Izabela Pietrzyk are the best way to get rid of the blues. The
author, endowed with extraordinary narrative talent, never ceases to
delight me with her humorous, offbeat books.
Magdalena Kijewska, blogger
Izabela Pietrzyk
FAMILY THEME PARK
The funny adventures of sisters, their children and their husbands
– former, present and future.
Spinsterhood is not only marital status, in the eyes of the mothers it
is a deadly illness, which needs to be cured right away. Janina tries to
get her daughter to marry any single man within sight and Wiktoria is
beginning to lose her patience...
The unmarried, childless daughter, getting older by the year, was seen as
a failure by Janina and constituted the source of her continuous worries
and grumblings. To make matters worse, she wouldn’t succumb to her
mother’s matchmaking endeavors and she kept escaping the marital trap.
Instead of thanking for sending bachelors her way and briskly dragging
one of them to the altar, she rejected their advances as if she wasn’t
aware of her age. Her mother would fold her arms and wonder why this
ungrateful child was so different from her older sister Amelia, who, for
a change, made her proud: she married a sailor, she gave birth to two
grand-children and she kept a house her mother could boast about before
the neighbors and the strangers met at random in the longish queue to
the GP.
Well, life proves that what seems beautiful on the outside is not
necessarily healthy on the inside. The perverse fate may reverse the
roles at any moment.
BOOK DETAILS: Rodzinny park atrakcji, novel
20
Prószyński Media 2015
504 pages
ISBN 978-83-7961-178-2
WOMEN’S FICTION
Izabela Pietrzyk
FAMILY HYSTERIAS
In this family, there is no room for boredom!
The thirty-eight-year-old Wiktoria ends her relationship with a generous
but aggressive partner. She hopes to be coming back to a place teeming
with loving people. But is it so…? While rebuilding her life, she comes to
a rather commonplace conclusion: the world is strange and the people in it,
even stranger. She tries to rekindle the relationships with her family full of
extraordinary characters: the grumbling mother, the always resentful father,
the continuously arguing teenage siblings and the good-natured Mela – her
older sister who does her best to keep all the haughty family under control.
BOOK DETAILS: Histerie rodzinne, novel
Prószyński Media 2014
640 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-740-3 Izabela Pietrzyk
THE BACHELORETTE PARTY
Renata, Izabela and Dorota, friends who are not quite serious despite their age,
go to Krakow for the Bachelorette party mentioned in the title, organized by
a friend who has just discovered that life starts after forty, as that’s about the
amount of time a woman needs to find a normal partner worthy of herself. When
the carelessly joyful „girls” get on the train, little do they expect what results
their journey will bring… After they reach their destination, it turns out that
Renia lost her wallet and her documents on the way. Fortunately, it was found
soon after by a stranger returning home on the night train. He was apparently
infatuated by the beautiful photo in her ID card… What will happen next?
BOOK DETAILS: Wieczór panieński, novel
Prószyński Media 2012
552 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-214-9 Izabela Pietrzyk
WOMEN’S TALK
A witty and impetuous tale of the troubles of „the third”. The forty-something
Iza becomes entangled in a romance with a married man. The decision may not
seem responsible at first sight, but… Czarek is nice, handsome and his marriage
is virtually nonexistent. Trouble is, her beloved man is not too keen to inform
his wife of his new partner… Iza can count on the support of her friends, with
whom she renewed the acquaintance after many years. They include: a fashion
designer, a radio journalist, a kindergarten teacher, a sailor’s wife who doesn’t
need to work and a humanist who has a career... in the bank. What heart advice
will the not-always-sensible Iza receive from her infallible friends?
BOOK DETAILS: Babskie gadanie, novel
Prószyński Media 2011
592 pages
ISBN 978-83-7648-828-8 WOMEN’S FICTION
www.proszynski.pl
MARIA ULATOWSKA Maria Ulatowska – author of the bestselling novels of manners: The Pine
Legacy, The Sosnówka Guesthouse, The Adventures of Mrs. Eustaszyna,
Home by the Sea, The Tenement at Krucza Street, Brand New Life and
Almost Sisters, who also co-authored the crime novel The Authoress
with Jacek Skowroński, was born in Warsaw and still lives there, but
she would love to be able to multiply. Then, she would also live in the
Three-City, in Bydgoszcz, in the Mazurian Lake District and in the Giant
Mountains, they are all her favorite places. During her worse moments,
she reads Gałczyński, during the better ones, she writes subsequent
funny and uplifting novels.
Maria Ulatowska
THE SOSNÓWKA FAMILY
The present of the protagonists of The Pine Legacy and The Sosnówka
Guesthouse is once again intertwined with their past, forcing them
to rediscover their origins. The next tale of the twisted fates of the
Towiański family and their friends. The ties of friendship and love
between the family members are strong, even though they are not
always blood ties. But isn’t such a family of choice equally important
as the natural, biological one? Or maybe even more important, since
we choose our dearest people for ourselves.
SELECTED REVIEWS
I have noticed something: the more the media shout of the atrocities of the
present day, the more I long to return to the world of Anka Towiańska and of
her nearest and dearest. I come back to their simple, clear-cut principles, to
their biographies in which problems do appear, but are intertwined with joys.
Anna Dmowska, „Claudia” magazine
Perhaps the optimism inherent in these novels is the reason for their
dizzying popularity. Sooner or later (but never too late!) the protagonists
turn over a new leaf, regain faith, rekindle home and find love. They
become part of the one big happy Sosnówka Family.
Dorota Koman, Polish Radio
BOOK DETAILS: Rodzina z Sosnówki, novel
22
THE SOSNÓWKA SERIES, #3
ISBN 978-83-7961-160-7
Prószyński Media 2015
424 pages
WOMEN’S FICTION
Maria Ulatowska
THE SOSNÓWKA GUESTHOUSE
The adventures of the protagonists of The Pine Legacy continue. It turns out that you can be happy with a little effort. Or… with a little
luck! Anna Towiańska, the young „Sosnówka heiress”, opens a cozy
guesthouse in the newly-renovated Kuyavian manor. Enamored of the
place, its ambience and its people, she makes new friends and… loses
her heart. Will managing a guesthouse prove bread and butter? The Sosnówka Guesthouse is a tale of good people and of those who
are yet to discover the good in themselves: the lively Dyzio, the little
Florek, the wonderful Irenka, the reliable Jacek, Szyszka the dog and
many other inhabitants and guests of the magical Sosnówka. It is
a story of searching for love regardless of our age and of discovering
passion for the things we love. Of a guesthouse which has become
haven for all those who want to strike a balance in their lives.
BOOK DETAILS: Pensjonat Sosnówka, novel
THE SOSNÓWKA SERIES, #2
ISBN 978-83-7648-701-4
Prószyński Media 2011
360 pages
Maria Ulatowska
THE PINE LEGACY
Anna Towiańska suddenly becomes the owner of Sosnówka, a beautiful,
old Kuyavian manor. The deserted, neglected house, inherited after
her mother who never knew of its existence, requires an overhaul.
Anna decides to restore its greatness. She discovers the picturesque
Sosnówka, adopts a stray dog and meets the agreeable inhabitants
of a nearby town. The self-proclaimed parking attendant Dyzio, who
supervises the town square, the handsome vet Grzegorz, the renovation
company owner Jacek and the little Florek looking for warmth and love
– they are all under the spell of the pretty newcomer, the „Sosnówka
Heiress”. No wonder Anna decides to stay in Sosnówka for a while. The Pine Legacy is a magical tale, full of optimism and kindness, showing
how the fate may help us be happy.
SELECTED REVIEWS
This is not simply a good book. It is a magical book. The fact that the author
was able to pass on so much optimism to me, an ordinary reader, deserves
praise. Add the cool protagonists and the extraordinary adventure – and
you have it all.
Anna Dral, lubimyczytac.pl
BOOK DETAILS: Sosnowe dziedzictwo, novel
THE SOSNÓWKA SERIES, #1
ISBN 978-83-7648-623-9
Prószyński Media 2011
296 pages
WOMEN’S FICTION
www.proszynski.pl
Maria Ulatowska
BRAND NEW LIFE
It is a tale of feelings. Of love. The hard, destructive, bad one. The biggest one,
that of the mother. Of hatred which appeared for no reason, out of jealousy
perhaps. And of friendship between a woman and a man. A friendship so close
it could become love if… he wasn’t in love with another. 1968. Franciszka
Janusiak, a small-town girl still under twenty, goes on vacation for the first
time. She meets her future husband, abandons her previous life and works
hard to build a new one. She needs to fight for the right to her dream job,
to motherhood, to independence. She succeeds and gains the most important
thing of all. Faith in herself and in her friends.
BOOK DETAILS: Całkiem nowe życie, novel
Prószyński Media 2013
440 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-512-6 Maria Ulatowska
TENEMENT AT KRUCZA STREET
Krucza 46 – the common address which constitutes the starting point for all
the stories in the book. The lives of ordinary people against the backdrop of
their times. The fates of inhabitants of a certain Warsaw tenement since 1937
to the end of the 20th century. Tosia and Piotr had their differences, but they
were united by the address which forever remained a part of their identity.
Struggling through the war, the Nazi occupation, the Uprising, the postwar years and all the historical transformations, they tried to withstand the
atrocities they witnessed every day. Through love, difficult decisions, partings,
struggle to survive and to retain identity, they tried to find luck no matter what. BOOK DETAILS: Kamienica przy Kruczej, novel Prószyński Media 2012 400 pages ISBN 978-83-7839-370-2 Maria Ulatowska
THE ADVENTURES
OF MRS. EUSTASZYNA
Fighting against the healthcare system, creating a home revolution, organizing
her husband’s life, flying a plane, dealing in real estate, writing a book? That’s
no big deal for our protagonist – Mrs. Eustaszyna. Her main task is to play the
leading role in the lives of all the people she knows, with particular emphasis
of her husband’s niece and her men, i.e. one slightly awkward engineer and one
very handsome cardiologists. Which one will the niece choose? Or rather: which
one will her aunt choose for her? BOOK DETAILS: Przypadki pani Eustaszyny, novel
24
Prószyński Media 2012
424 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-077-0 WOMEN’S FICTION
Maria Ulatowska
ALMOST SISTERS
When they finished high school, the three classmates Leksi, Teo and
Luśka, that is Aleksandra, Teodora and Jolanta decided that whatever
the time may bring, they will meet every five years in the agreed place,
always on the same date. Each one will recount what happened for her
in the meantime. And a lot of things happen – that’s how life is, after
all. A man appears, bringing love, rejection, longing, pain after losing
the dearest person, betrayal, forgiveness... But is that something true
friendship can’t deal with? The greatest friendship, lasting for years…
A story of a great test of loyalty, fidelity and memory; of values for which
the passing time is the hardest test.
BOOK DETAILS: Prawie siostry, novel
Prószyński Media 2014
360 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-694-9 Maria Ulatowska
HOME BY THE SEA
A story of dreams which come true against all odds. Sometimes even
despite the fact that you ceased to believe – or maybe due to that fact?
Fifty years from the lives of Ewa and her friends abound in wonderful
and dramatic events: births, deaths, marriages, betrayals, loves,
friendships, doubts, personal tragedies, desires… All of it in Warsaw,
Bydgoszcz and the Three-City.
It is a story of how the fate can sometimes take the initiative if we only
give it a little help, if we strongly believe and if we wish very hard that
all goes well. Home by the Sea is my third book, but you may say that it all started
here. The biography of a certain girl, her dreams and her efforts to make
them come true... remind me of something. But for that girl, me and my
books would not exist. But for my love of the Three-City and most of all
for the Orłowo Cliff, of the poetry of Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński and
of animals – this book would not have been written. Maria Ulatowska
BOOK DETAILS: Domek nad morzem, novel
Prószyński Media 2011
376 pages
ISBN 978-83-7648-940-7
WOMEN’S FICTION
www.proszynski.pl
TANYA VALKO
Tanya Valko is a pseudonym of the Jagiellonian University’s graduate.
She was a teacher in Polish School in Libya and afterwards a long-term
assistant to the Ambassadors of the Republic of Poland. For over 20
years she has been living in Arab countries including Libya and Saudi
Arabia, now she is a resident in Indonesia. She is the author of books
about Libya: Backstage of Libya, Everyday life in Tripoli and Sahara
– Ocean of Silence. Her interest in healthy lifestyle sprouted with
following books: Cut the slimming – time for diet, Modern Cookbook and
Slimming Cookbook. Her novel debut – Arabian Wife – was published in
2010. It became immediately the bestseller and beginning of Arabian
Saga; Arabian Daughter (2011), Arabian Blood (2012) and Arabian
Princess (2013) are the continuation of the series. Tanya Valko in 2013
published another novel showing the problems of middle age people
and their desire to keep youth forever: Make me younger, make me
beauty. After the success of Arabian Saga, Tanya Valko opened another
novel cycle: Asian Saga.
Tanya Valko
Love on Bali
Love on Bali is the second part of The Asian Saga after Slivers of
Paradise set in Indonesia. The tourists who come to Bali for a moment
in increasing numbers are enchanted with the surroundings, but the
place has a second face – a concealed, dangerous and ugly one.
The protagonists of The Arabian Saga, Dorota and her daughter
Marysia, join the large group of Polish settlers on Bali. How did the
half-Arab change? How was she influenced by the liberal Indonesian
Islam and by the magical Hindu Bali? How is Dorota doing in a place
which is so much like paradise? Does she still tend to get into trouble?
What has become of the little Nadia? How is Marysia’s private life? Is
Karim really the one she wants to spend the rest of her life with? Will
she meet her first great love, Hamid Binladen, again?
Tanya Valko intertwines the fictitious lives of the protagonists with
real events. She presents the daily life on the paradisiac island and
reveals another world, unknown to Europeans, full of spirits and
amazing beliefs.
BOOK DETAILS: Milość na Bali, novel ASIAN SAGA, #2
ISBN 978-83-8069-018-9
26
Prószyński Media 2015
WOMEN’S FICTION
Tanya Valko
SLIVERS OF PARADISE
Tanya Valko, the author mostly known due to the Arabian Saga series, takes the
reader into the world of Asia, such as Thailand or Indonesia. We are introduced
to an Indonesian woman, Meila, when she was still a little girl. Living in wellness,
in a beautiful house with her happy family, one day she suddenly is forced to
leave everything due to anticommunism riots sweeping across Indonesia in
1965. Hard work, dangerous diseases, rapes, notorious abuse and bullying
weaker women, becomes their everyday life. Slivers of Paradise is a novel that
shows a cruel world, filled with poverty, prostitution and lies, but despite that
above all it gives the hope for better future.
BOOK DETAILS: Okruchy raju, novel ASIAN SAGA, #1 Prószyński Media 2014
ISBN 978-83-7839-772-4
648 pages
Tanya Valko
ARABIAN WIFE
Arabian Wife is a novel debut of Tanya Valko that at once became a bestseller. It
is a shocking story of a Polish woman, who married a Libyan Muslim. This book is
also a result of more than twenty years of author’s contacts with Islam countries,
effect of studies and researches, own experiences and heard stories. Dorothy,
a high school student, meets Ahmed and falls in love immediately. Her family and
closest friends do not hide their negative opinion about her relationship with
Arab, but lovers do not give up on themselves and continue their meetings – girl
gets pregnant and they finally get married. After some time a couple goes to
Libya with their few years old daughter Mary to meet Ahmed’s family.
BOOK DETAILS: Arabska żona, novel ArabiAN SAGA, #1 Prószyński Media 2010
ISBN 978-83-7648-563-8 Rights sold: Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic
560 pages
Tanya Valko
ARABIAN DAUGHTER
Arabian Daughter is a continuation of Arabian Wife novel. Polish-Libyan main
character, Mary, after forced separation with her mother during her childhood,
begins to wander around the most remote corners of the world. Because of
Ahmed’s connections with fundamentalists, family moves to Ghana. After few
years Mary’s despotic father appears and wants to rule her life. In the effect
of runaway from him Nadia and Mary end up living with distant relatives in
Yemen. It is a place where Mary finds happiness, friendship and love. When
from a small girl Mary becomes a grown up woman, who wants to have
children, she begins to think about her lost mother and decides to find her.
BOOK DETAILS: Arabska córka, novel ArabiAN SAGA, #2 Prószyński Media 2011
ISBN 978-83-7648-678-9 Rights sold: Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic 384 pages
WOMEN’S FICTION
www.proszynski.pl
Tanya Valko
ARABIAN BLOOD
Arabian Blood is a continuation of bestselling novels by Tanya Valko:
Arabian Wife and Arabian Daughter. It is a political thriller and a love
story. Author shows the continuation of unbelievable fates of Dorothy
and her Polish-Libyan daughter – Mary. The book shows horrors of
war, passion and feelings as well as the psychological backgrounds of
human behavior. We get to know cruelty and Qaddafi’s ruthlessness
and the sufferings of common citizens of Libya.
Will Dorothy and Mary be together forever after they have finally
found each other in Saudi Arabia after years of searches? Are their
relationships successful and do they feel satisfied by having them?
How will Libya look like after the revolution? Did the opposition fought
for this kind of country? Answers to those and many other questions
are to be found in novel titled Arabian Blood.
BOOK DETAILS: Arabska krew, novel ArabiAN SAGA, #3 Prószyński Media 2012
ISBN 978-83-7839-108-1 Rights sold: Russia, Ukraine
768 pages
Tanya Valko
ARABIAN PRINCESS
Arabian Princess is a continuation of Tanya Valko’s bestselling novels:
Arabian Wife, Arabian Daughter and Arabian Blood. This novel is carefully
investigating depths of human nature conditioned by Islamic law of
Sharia. It is a story characterizing violence, murders and violations and
a cognitive book showing life in Arab country.
Author shows us the continuation of fates of Dorothy – Pole who
married Libyan man while she was a very young – and all grown up
Mary, who has become a mother herself to a little girl Nadia. This time
their life collide with tangled fate of Lamia – Saudi Arabian Princess.
In this novel Arab country is shown not only through the eyes of
a European, but also through native’s ones too. Book shows attempts
of emancipation of Saudi Arabian women and finding a place to fit in
the country of men. Tanya Valko shows a cruelty, passions and feelings
as well as psychological ground of human behavior.
BOOK DETAILS: Arabska księżniczka, novel ArabiAN SAGA, #4
ISBN 978-83-7839-468-6 28
Prószyński Media 2013
712 pages
WOMEN’S FICTION
MARIOLA ZACZYŃSKA Mariola Zaczyńska – journalist, owner of the „Smocze Pole” ranch, a paradise
for abandoned and mutilated animals. Distinguishing features: temperament
and sense of humor. She likes coffee, good books and travels full of
adventures. She organizes „The Pen and the Claw”, the Women’s Literature
Festival, in Siedlce. She blogs at: www.zaczynska.pl.
SELECTED REVIEWS
The author strikes a perfect balance between humor and action and confidently
leads us through the pages, causing thrills more than once on a way.
Karolina Malinowska, model
Mariola Zaczyńska
THE IMPETUOUS WOMAN
A humorous and lively tale of friendship, love and madness.
Everyone deserves a nice, discreet affair! Irena surely does. But how to hide
it when her grown-up children appear all of the sudden, her prying mother
arrives unannounced and her friends treat her home like a hotel? Janusz, the restaurant owner, becomes the object of gossip after his partner
leaves him. It’s hard to heal a broken heart when surrounded by gastro-spies
who will waste no opportunity to crash his dreams of a star in the famous
culinary guide. Zuzanna tries to prove that „a woman makes a good policeman”
in an all-male environment. This explosive mixture must mean trouble!
BOOK DETAILS: Kobieta z Impetem, novel
Prószyński Media 2014
376 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-785-4
Mariola Zaczyńska
A HARMFUL SET OF VIRTUES
A coherent plot, an interesting idea, extraordinary characters. Add the
glamour of fashion shows in the background, a secret from the past, the strong
personalities of the protagonists and the author’s sense of humor.
Under the reign of the new editor-in-chief, Kalina loses her star status and she
is „exiled” to an off fashion week in Siedlce. It is a heavy blow for her since she
detests writing about fashion. When she arrives, it turns out that during the
construction of the catwalk, bones were unearthed... Hundreds of skeletons…
and one corpse. Mysterious and bloodcurdling things happen at the backstage of
this vanity fair. Too many people have too many things to hide during the shows...
BOOK DETAILS: Szkodliwy pakiet cnót, novel
Prószyński Media 2013
448 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-454-9
WOMEN’S FICTION
www.proszynski.pl
MAGDALENA ZIMNY-LOUIS Magdalena Zimny-Louis was born in Rzeszów as Magda Zimna, has
lived the last twenty-tree years Ipswich as Magda Louis and intends
to die at some nice place in Poland under a still different name. She is
a journalist and a translator, she won the „Write to Pilch” competition.
Her novel, Pola, received the readers’ first prize at the Pen and the
Claw Festival in Siedlce in 2013.
Magdalena Zimny-Louis
A COUPLE
OF FORTUNATE COINCIDENCES
A novel of manners, with a lot of twisted humor, about a couple of
generations in a couple of families that believe it has to be better
somewhere, sometime. All things that happen to us, however great or significant, always begin
from a small dot against a black or white background. (...)
If my father Florian Duda had listened to his parents and had gone to aunt
Rita straight from the airport, as agreed, he wouldn’t have met Gloria, his
future wife. As a result, the world would be devoid of one existence – mine.
If Damian Rogalik hadn’t been murdered on the Christmas Eve night at the
parking lot of a tennis club in northern London and if Monta Kolaczenko
hadn’t lost her life due to some suspicious play which was never openly
called sexual activity, I, Emma Duda, would not have emigrated to Poland.
If I hadn’t visited my grandparents’ graves on my second day in Poland,
I probably wouldn’t have ended up here. Instead I would have settled in
Krakow, as planned during the weeks spent in a rage. But one insignificant event starts an avalanche and before I knew, it led
me sideways instead of where I intended to go.
Excerpt from the book
BOOK DETAILS: Kilka przypadków szczęśliwych, novel Prószyński Media 2014
ISBN 978-83-7839-675-8
30
432 pages
WOMEN’S FICTION
IZABELA ŻUKOWSKA
Izabela Żukowska – musicologist and sociologist working as a journalist;
long-time collaborator of the Polish Radio, currently of Channel One.
She used to write for the „Kino” monthly, she taught at the Catholic
University of Lublin and at the University of Social Sciences in Warsaw.
She wrote the books Teufel, Gotenhafen and Above the City, the Angels.
SELECTED REVIEWS
Izabela Żukowska nimbly combines the past and the present and reveals
that the fate of people entangled in the Great History is a hard one. Here,
we can also see that the fate of the city is far from obvious as well. Danzig
is one of the main and the most interesting protagonists of this intriguing
novel. Recommended reading!
Bernadetta Darska, literary critic
Izabela Żukowska
DEFECTS
Defects is a story of people who are not perfect and of a city which
was seduced by totalitarian ideology. One of the protagonists claims
there is no such thing as hell. This story proves that we make hell for
ourselves. The novel covers two centuries in the history of the Hollenbach family
from Gdansk and the sisters Johanna and Henrietta. Even though they
are twins, their decisions lead them to very different places. The newlyformed Free City of Danzig, the Weimar Republic, Berlin of the 1920s,
the capital of the reborn Poland and Gdynia, still under construction,
are the places where the decisions are made. All of it in the shade of
the Nazi flag. SELECTED REVIEWS
In Defects, the history of a certain Danzig family becomes a pretext for
a tale of troubles with identity, of the totalitarian venom and of the
catastrophe of the war. In this wise, balanced book, Izabela Żukowska
reminds us that during the 20th century ordinary people faced situations
in which all the ways out were bad.
Piotr Kofta, literary critic
BOOK DETAILS: Skazy, novel
Prószyński Media 2014
488 pages
ISBN 978-83-7961-056-3
crime & Thriller
www.proszynski.pl
BARTŁOMIEJ BIESIEKIRSKI Bartłomiej Biesiekirski (born in Ostróda in 1971) – graphic artist,
animator and writer. Forever torn apart due to his love of the Mazurian
Lake District, the Lower Silesia and the Pomerania. He lives in Torun,
where he studied graphics at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Nicolaus
Copernicus University. He has ties with Wroclaw, where part of his
family was resettled from the Polish Eastern Borderlands. He has
been participating in the production of famous Polish video games. He
used to be a regular at the International Festival of Comics in Łódź. His
stories have been published in the press and on literary websites, some
of them received awards. For his story TLK Olsztyn-Wrocław, he was
awarded a distinction in the form of participation in the International
Crime Fiction Festival in Wrocław. The Clairvoyant is his first novel.
Bartłomiej Biesiekirski
THE CLAIRVOYANT
Nominated for the Great Caliber Award (2014).
The wife of a famous Wroclaw lawyer goes missing. For some reason,
the attorney hires a man he truly hates to find her. Thus, Joachim
Grefer, called by some the Clairvoyant, becomes involved in a brutal
race where life is the prize. He is unaware of the fact that someone
found the corpse of an unidentified woman in the forests of the Lower
Silesia and that his involvement in the murder is suspected by the
police. The Assistant Police Commissioner Adam Seweryn, who is in
charge of the investigation, does not believe Grefer to be guilty but
he is willing to use the Clairvoyant as a smokescreen if it allows him to
catch the killer. It suddenly turns out that the events are intertwined
with an accident from several years back, during which a young married
couple drowned in the Czarna Woda lake. During his search for the
attorney’s wife, Grefer meets people who have never forgotten their
grievances and still dream of vengeance. Whatever it may take…
SELECTED REVIEWS
It is a great read and it never fails to surprise the reader anew – it is
a debut carefully considered, intelligent and worth discovering.
Jarosław Czechowicz, krytycznymokiem.blogspot.com
BOOK DETAILS: Jasnowidz, novel
32
Prószyński Media 2013
392 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-482-2
crime & Thriller
see also: p. 7
Anna Fryczkowska
THE FACELESS WOMAN
A crime story about the strength of women and the banality of evil. After her husband’s tragic death, Hanna Cudny abandons everything
and escapes to the countryside with her two children, to teach English,
do gardening and be happy. But the countryside is not as idyllic as
it seemed: Hanna’s daughter finds a corpse in a nearby forest, her
teenage son starts acting strange and the parents of one of her
students disappear without a trace. Hanna solves the terrifying puzzle
piece by piece and discovers evil concealed in the people she used to
trust. A crime story about a woman determined to restore order in the corner
of the universe that surrounds her. BOOK DETAILS: Kobieta bez twarzy, novel
Prószyński Media 2011
416 pages
ISBN 978-83-7648-739-7
Anna Fryczkowska
THE ELDERLY LADY
INVESTIGATES
A daringly ironic and ironically daring novel that is much more than
just a crime story. An English teacher, who had been tortured before
his death, is found in his own apartment. An accountant disappears
without a trace. Someone commits atrocities on cats. All the threads
seem unrelated at the first glance, but they have something in common
– the elderly lady who uses her informal ties with a detective agency
to solve the mystery of the troublemaker in her backyard – and who
is surprisingly effective! (Perhaps due to her proficiency of using the
assets which only the very mature women possess…) SELECTED REVIEWS
Fryczkowska’s great book is a comedy only at times. First and foremost,
it is a compelling story of an intricate, multi-thread investigation, of the
need to take justice into one’s own hands and to face stereotypes. Marta Mizuro, „Zwierciadło” magazine The language of this novel perfectly wraps ideas in words. And the
mystery can’t wait to be solved, from the very beginning to the very end. Joanna Jodełka, writer, winner of the Great Caliber Award
BOOK DETAILS: Starsza pani wnika, novel
Prószyński Media 2012
440 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-140-1
crime & Thriller
www.proszynski.pl
see also: p. 2
Marek Harny
FOR PRINCIPLES’ SAKE
A young girl is brutally murdered. The police suspect that the perpetrator
is the serial rapist released from prison shortly before. Adam Bukowski
– investigating journalist, lover of beautiful women and of alcohol, discovers
that this might not be the case. The traces lead to Krakow. It turns out that
Bukowski’s daughter is involved in the case. She is in mortal danger and
only her father, with whom she has long been at odds, may save her.
SELECTED REVIEWS
For Principles’ Sake is the best book on Bukowski’s adventures, and the
most ambiguous one – we witness the evolution of the protagonists’
attitudes and the author convincingly shows how much a person can
change under the influence of a strong personality.
Bernadetta Darska, literary critic
BOOK DETAILS: W imię zasad, novel
ADAM BUKOWSKI SERIES, #3
ISBN 978-83-7648-652-9
Prószyński Media 2011
488 pages
Marek Harny
THE HACK
Marek Harny’s outstanding The Hack earned him the prestigious Great
Caliber Award in 2006.
The career of the journalist Adam Bukowski starts progressing after
years of stagnation, but when he learns that Dorota, his ex-lover, was
murdered, he quits the comfortable life of a Parisian correspondent and
returns to his homeland. He tries to solve the mystery of the woman’s
death. The search leads to terrifying conclusions, related not only to
the surrounding world, but also to his former lover… and to himself.
Solving the mystery will only be the starting point for Bukowski’s long
journey.
SELECTED REVIEWS
The Hack is a multi-layered novel, deep and true. A thriller that encourages
afterthought. It is a daring combination, and a difficult one. Yet Marek
Harny pulls it off masterfully.
Aleksandra Stronka, zbrodniawbibliotece.pl
BOOK DETAILS: Pismak, novel
34
ADAM BUKOWSKI SERIES, #1 Prószyński Media 2011
ISBN 978-83-7648-654-3
480 pages
crime & Thriller
PAWEŁ JASZCZUK
Paweł Jaszczuk (born in 1954) – writer, literary critic and playwright. He
published a story collection and several novels, including crime stories
about the Lvov journalist Jakub Stern: Foresta Umbra (winner of the
Great Caliber Prize for the best crime story), Sara’s Plan, Puppets and
Death’s Midwife.
SELECTED REVIEWS
Crime stories such as this – as well as any texts from the once-popular
„little homeland” movement – are a kind of literary exploration of lost
worlds, destroyed by History.
Robert Ostaszewski, literary critic
Paweł Jaszczuk
DEATH’S MIDWIFE
The latest volume of a vintage crime story series by Paweł Jaszczuk,
winner of the Great Caliber prize. Lvov, the spring of 1939. The investigating journalist Jakub Stern orders
a suit from a tailor who was recommended to him. When he comes to
collect his order, it turns out that Lille, alias Lucky, hung himself. At his
feet, Stern finds a photograph of the tailor’s niece, who went missing
some time before.
A few days later, two of Lucky’s customers die – one is killed in
a factory accident, another gets brutally murdered. The public opinion
is scandalized by one more thing – someone kills newborn babies and
leaves them in various parts of the city. Each of the children is wrapped
in wooden rosary beads. Will Jakub and is colleagues Wilga de Brie
manage to solve the mystery behind the deaths of the tailor and of his
customers? Does the case have anything in common with the murders
of the newborns and the disappearance of the niece?
SELECTED REVIEWS
I felt as if I was in the antebellum Lvov, or rather – I simply was there.
A book for all fans of juicy, traditional prose, and of good crime fiction.
Włodzimierz Kowalewski
BOOK DETAILS: Akuszer śmierci, novel
JAKUB STERN SERIES, #4
ISBN 978-83-7839-608-6
Prószyński Media 2013
304 pages
crime & Thriller
www.proszynski.pl
Paweł Jaszczuk
PUPPETS
A puppet festival is under way in Lvov. Someone’s preparing a bloody
show… On a summer morning in 1938, a violently mutilated body of a bank
cashier was found. The journalist Jakub Stern tries to solve the mystery.
His colleague – the intriguing and smart Wilga de Brie, and a certain
police inspector follow their own leads. In a villa in the outskirts of the city, Jakub and Wilga discover the
killer’s hideout, full of strange puppets which look deceptively like
human beings. Soon afterwards, the director of the puppet theatre
and a young actress, Mimi, are killed. Are the murders connected? BOOK DETAILS: Marionetki, novel
JAKUB STERN SERIES, #3 Prószyński Media 2012
ISBN 978-83-7839-011-4
344 pages
Paweł Jaszczuk
SARA’S PLAN
May 1938. Jakub Stern, is a journalist for the „Kurier”, describing the
most violent atrocities committed in Lvov. He soon begins to feel that
this is not enough and to conduct his own journalistic investigations.
He often acts quicker than the police and after solving the cases of
a mad „forest blacksmith” who nails horseshoes to his victims’ feet
and another madman who collects female right hands, he becomes
famous. Finally, even the Lvov University regards him as an expert and
invites him to have classes at the Faculty of Law. Stern gets his student
involved in a risky experiment: they are supposed to guess what the
criminal is feeling and to elaborate a crime scenario for a psycho killer.
Soon afterwards, the police find the frozen corpse of a young man in
the city square, under the Amphitrite statue. He is naked and his face
is mutilated. Stern notices that someone started to implement one of
the psychopathic scenarios…
SELECTED REVIEWS
Paweł Jaszczuk returns to the antebellum Lvov and the adventures of an
investigating journalist, Jakub Stern, who keeps on getting involved in
criminal affairs. And what a classy return it is! Stern must face another
psychopathic serial killer. Captivating – and terrifying!
Robert Ostaszewski, „Polityka” magazine
BOOK DETAILS: Plan Sary, novel
36
JAKUB STERN SERIES, #2 Prószyński Media 2011
ISBN 978-83-7648-582-9 240 pages
crime & Thriller
MATEUSZ M. LEMBERG Mateusz M. Lemberg – born in 1971, a humanist with a degree in
veterinary medicine. Before he started to write, he made amateur
movies, travelled to the East and drew comic books. He makes his living
as a doctor, he loves cats, good books, Spain and Sweden. He wrote the
novels Owing to the Night and The Patron Saint.
Visit the author’s website at: www.mmlemberg.pl. SELECTED REVIEWS
In The Owing to the Night, Lemberg did a lot to attract attention to his
debut. He created a trio of protagonists with twisted biographies, described
them in a credible manner and seasoned it all with the ambience of today’s
Warsaw. What’s the next step? To begin the next book with a bishop’s
severed head and, as Hitchcock ordered, to follow it with rising tension.
Piotr Bratkowski, „Newsweek”
Mateusz M. Lemberg
OWING TO THE NIGHT
Witczak, a police commissioner from the capital: detective, jazzman
and loner in a difficult relationship with a woman whose past is dark.
Tymański, policeman, widower continuously struggling to reconcile
his complicated family life and his career. Cynowska, a girl who joined
the police after working in the Itaka foundation, where her traumatic
experiences made her swear that she will hunt down criminals to the
bitter end. Prosecutor Malicka, an ambitious professional, kind-hearted
despite her failed relationship with an Internal Affairs officer.
The policemen, who are also ordinary people with their own problems,
must deal with a mysterious series of crimes. They try to solve the
mystery of the corpses of three men who died in strange circumstances.
SELECTED REVIEWS
Lemberg is a master of his craft. He knows equally much about the secrets
of men and of animals. The latter are the villains in Owing to the Night,
but obviously the worst one among them is homo sapiens, a being both
limitlessly evil and full of weaknesses which can be used against it. The
three protagonists, policemen from Warsaw, will painfully experience it
first-hand. A great, mature debut.
Marta Mizuro, „Zwierciadło”
BOOK DETAILS: Zasługa nocy, novel
WITCZAK SERIES, #1 Prószyński Media 2014
ISBN 978-83-7839-721-2
314 pages
crime & Thriller
www.proszynski.pl
Mateusz M. Lemberg
THE PATRON SAINT
1991. A mutiny breaks out among the novices at the mendicant order
monastery in Stary Bród. Some of the young friars leave the community
and transfer to the Slovak province. Over twenty years later, a bishop’s head is found in the tabernacle
of the Stary Bród church. The policeman in charge of the case is
commissioner Witczak, freshly returned from a two-month inpatient
treatment at the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology. He cooperates
with officer Cynowska, who is preparing for a sex change operation,
and with the increasingly frustrated sergeant Tymański. They are no
longer a harmonious team. One of them wants to take the law into
their own hands. When another friar falls victim to a ritual murder, they realize that they
are facing an outstanding adversary. A killer dubbed „The Patron Saint”.
BOOK DETAILS: Patron, novel
see also: p. 14
WITCZAK SERIES, #2 Prószyński Media 2014
ISBN 978-83-7961-045-7
512 pages
Joanna Marat
THE MONOGRAM
Detective Chief Inspector Marek Kos – jocularly called the Nightmare
– has a gap between his front teeth and a charming smile evocative of
Janek Kos, the hero of the „Four tank-men and a dog” TV series beloved
by his generation. Unfortunately, he also curses like a sailor, has a thing
for high-proof spirits and wears clothes he bought at a market.
Inspector Ernest Malinowski is his opposite – aged forty-three, six foot
tall, dark blonde hair which is graying, but still abundant (perhaps to
an excess). He is always neatly dressed and you can tell he goes to the
gym. He has a very nice chest and, supposedly, a yacht.
Both men are very imperfect and terrifyingly lonesome, they both
try to escape their fears through alcohol, one-night stands and lies.
Each of them bears the burden of his, and sometimes others’, sins.
They also have their emblems, summarizing their painful identities:
a name, a monogram, a red star on a scaffold painted by a vandal on
the parents’ tombstone or a jeans uniform. Yet, they are able to keep
their distance from themselves and to laugh at their colleagues.
They are to solve the mystery of a brutal murder of a thirty-something.
The murder brings back another crime and a mystery of a certain
woman and of her complex identity.
BOOK DETAILS: Monogram, novel
38
Prószyński Media 2014
328 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-718-2
crime & Thriller
KATARZYNA PUZYŃSKA
Katarzyna Puzyńska (born in 1985) – a psychologist, a lecturer in the
department of psychology and a writer. In her spare time she runs,
walks with her three dogs and goes horse-riding. She loves Sweden
and Spain. Her books about Lipovo murders are considered by literary
critics not only to be gripping psychological crime fiction classics, but
also novels with a complex social and moral themes. Her debut book
The Butterfly was compared to novels by Agatha Christie and the
Swedish queen of the genre, Camilla Läckberg.
SELECTED REVIEWS
Puzynska portrays both the protagonists and the background characters
with equal care. You are engrossed in the plot until the end. The author uses
a proven trick typical for Christie – in a small community almost everyone is
a suspect... So it is important not only to answer the main question: who is
killing?, but also to uncover the secrets of subsequent characters.
Robert Ostaszewski, literary critic
Katarzyna Puzyńska
With one exception
The winter has left Lipowo for good. The spring is taking over.
Chestnuts are blooming and green young crops rustle in the fields. In
such favorable weather, senior constable Daniel Podgórski intends to
finally change his life and to propose to Weronika Nowakowska.
Meanwhile, a certain florist dies near Lipowo. She was quite aged, so
her death initially seems unsuspicious. Yet for some reason, the medical
rescuer from the ambulance called by the neighbor of the deceased
insists that police be notified immediately. It soon turns out that she
was right and that the florist was murdered.
Daniel Podgórski and superintendent Klementyna Kopp face another
challenge. Who could want the solitary elderly lady to die? Why did the
killer tattoo a hardly legible inscription on her breast? What does it all
have in common with the story of a young couple from over 160 years
back?
With one exception is the fourth volume of the series on policemen
from the village of Lipowo: gripping, classical crime stories with a
strong drama background.
BOOK DETAILS: Z jednym wyjątkiem, novel THE lipovo SERIES, #4 Prószyński Media 2015
ISBN 978-83-8069-016-5
744 pages
crime & Thriller
www.proszynski.pl
Katarzyna Puzyńska
THE THIRTY-FIRST
Lipowo is preparing for Christmas. Houses are decorated with colourful lights.
Everything smells of pine needles, and in the brick church carols are sung
loudly. Only one thing disturbs the peace of the village: in a few days the
murderer will return to Lipowo. For fifteen long years no one in the village
has ever pronounced his name. Daniel Podgorski has a special reason to hate
the notorious man. It was he who caused the fire in which Podgorski’s father
heroically died. Podgorski is trying to keep the situation under control. He
does not expect, however, that on the day before Christmas Eve deadly fire
will burst into flames once again.
BOOK DETAILS: Trzydziesta pierwsza, novel THE lipovo SERIES, #3
ISBN 978-83-7961-161-4
Prószyński Media 2015
560 pages
Katarzyna Puzyńska
MORE RED
Summer in Lipowo is in full swing. Harvest on the fields begins and the apples
ripen in the orchards. Police officer Daniel Podgorski feels that he is in the
best moment of his life. Meanwhile, in the vicinity of quiet Lipowo two young
women are killed. The perpetrator brutally mutilated their bodies. Criminal
police from the town of Brodnica suspects that the two murders might be the
work of a serial killer. Daniel Podgorski joins the investigative team led by the
controversial Commissioner Clementine Kopp. The Police team is trying to find
common points between the two victims and create a profile of the killer.
Will they manage to discover what the real purpose of the murderer is?
BOOK DETAILS: Więcej czerwieni, novel
THE lipovo SERIES, #2
ISBN 978-83-7961-027-3
Prószyński Media 2014
560 pages
Katarzyna Puzyńska
THE BUTTERFLY
On a frosty winter morning on the outskirts of the village a body of a nun is
found. Initially, it seems that the woman was hit by a car. However, it soon
becomes clear that someone killed her and then faked an accident. A few days
later, another person is killed. The two victims do not seem to be in any way
related to each other. A race against the clock begins. The police must find the
killer before another woman dies.
The investigation reveals dark secrets from the nun’s past and uncovers greater
or lesser sins of the residents of the apparently quiet and idyllic village.
BOOK DETAILS: Motylek, novel THE lipovo SERIES, #1 Prószyński Media 2014
ISBN 978-83-7839-695-6 Rights sold: Lithuania, Romania 40
608 pages
crime & Thriller
OLGA RUDNICKA
Olga Rudnicka (born in 1988) – holder of a degree in Education and
rehabilitation of persons with intellectual disabilities from the Adam
Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Author of crime stories: The Dead
Lake, Is This Red Cat a Dog?, Zacisze 13, Return to Zacisze 13, Lilith,
The Five Natalias, The Secret Admirer, The Natalias’ Second Scam, The
Lucky Misfortune and Three Times the Natalias. She works as assistant
to the disabled at the Polish Social Assistance Committee. She loves
horseback riding, she is an avid reader of Joanna Chmielewska, Stephen
King, Joe Hill and Harlan Coben.
Olga Rudnicka
THREE TIMES THE NATALIAS
The Natalias return, only to make a great escape…
Międzyzdroje. In this charming seaside resort, where the worst
crime is usually pickpocketing, the corpse of a young woman is
discovered. The identity of the victim remains unknown. At the same
time, someone breaks into an empty room in a posh hotel. No traces
are left, nothing is stolen. The police is powerless. By chance, the
Sucharska sisters happen to be relaxing at the seaside. The men of
their lives suddenly failed them, so the Natalias decided to escape
from home. But how long can you lie on the beach and do nothing?
And what can you do in such hellish heat? The sisters begin their own
investigation, stepping on the toes of the local police, as Natalias will.
SELECTED REVIEWS
I love all five Natalias dearly and I could read about them many more
times…
miastoksiazek.blox.pl
Compelling, intriguing, exhilarating and leaving the reader hungry.
Whoever visited the house in Mechlin once will always want to return!
Anita Boharewicz, we-dwoje.pl
BOOK DETAILS: Do trzech razy Natalie, novel THE NATALIAS SERIES, #3
ISBN 978-83-7961-122-5
Prószyński Media 2015
384 pages
crime & Thriller
www.proszynski.pl
Olga Rudnicka
THE NATALIAS’ SECOND SCAM
An excellent crime story and a brilliant comedy in one! A headless corpse of
a young man is discovered in the apartment of Janusz Zawada, the former
business partner of the Sucharska sisters’ father. The elderly gentleman himself
disappeared without a trace. Were his remains really found in a burnt-down car,
abandoned at the bank of the Vistula river? The five Natalias find it hard to believe.
It turns out that Janusz Zawada was no ordinary elderly gentleman. He used to
cooperate with a mighty gang of art thieves and he kept diamonds worth millions
in his deposit box in the bank. The investigation continues, subsequent witnesses
die, the diamonds disappear and the Sucharska sisters enter the scene…
BOOK DETAILS: Drugi przekręt Natalii, novel THE NATALIAS SERIES, #2
ISBN 978-83-7839-410-5
Prószyński Media 2013
496 pages
Olga Rudnicka
THE FIVE NATALIAS
Five women, five motives, one legacy.
The police receives a mysterious report of a suicide. The room is locked from
the inside. The man is dead. The only fingerprints on the gun were left by the
deceased. Yet, commissioner Potocki who arrives at the scene claims that it
couldn’t have been suicide, even if the evidence seems to rule out murder. The
mysterious death is only the beginning of a series of extraordinary events…
Five women bearing the same name and surname appear at the notarial office.
Each claims to be the heiress apparent. Each of them had a reason to kill. Each
one will lie and deceive to recover the legacy…
BOOK DETAILS: Natalii 5, novel
THE NATALIAS SERIES, #1 Prószyński Media 2011
ISBN 978-83-7648-682-6
560 pages
Olga Rudnicka
THE LUCKY MISFORTUNE
Constable Nadziany has bad luck. After a series of unfortunate events, he
volunteers for the transfer to a small station where nobody knows him and
where he can start afresh. Upon his arrival, he meets a classmate from the
police academy, Dziany who decides that police work doesn’t suit him and
becomes a private detective. He is aided by his brother, Gianni, who has rather
specific customers – the bosses of the criminal underworld. One of them, alias
Padlina, becomes Dziany’s first customer. For a change, he needs a private
detective instead of an assassin, because he first needs to find out who to kill.
Of course, nothing goes according to plan.
BOOK DETAILS: Fartowny pech, novel
42
Prószyński Media 2014
304 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-774-8
crime & Thriller
Olga Rudnicka
THE SECRET ADMIRER
Discover how thin the line between adoration and stalking can get. Julia is an ordinary girl. She graduated, found a job, has a fiancé. When she
gets flowers from a secret admirer, she is excited and intrigued… Then come
poems, next flowers and presents – and Julia is anxious at first and then
becomes increasingly alarmed. No-one understands her fears. It is so romantic,
after all…
How to get rid of a stalker when you have no idea who he is and he knows
everything about you?
BOOK DETAILS: Cichy wielbiciel, novel
Prószyński Media 2012
440 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-100-5
Olga Rudnicka
IS THIS RED CAT A DOG?
An affair with the boss, an escape and… a dark secret! The twenty-something Ulka has an affair with her boss. When his wife finds
out, scandal ensues. The girl gets fired and flees the town. By chance, she gets
to a village near Wrocław where she is misidentified as a wanted criminal. As
if she wasn’t in enough trouble, she finds herself in the house owned by a man
suspected of hiding a corpse in his garden...
Is This Red Cat a Dog?, the captivating story of further adventures of Ulka and
Beata of The Dead Lake is a book full of unbelievable coincidences which lead
to a surprising finale! BOOK DETAILS: Czy ten rudy kot to pies?, novel
Prószyński Media 2009
232 pages
ISBN 978-83-7648-081-7
Olga Rudnicka
THE DEAD LAKE
Beata – an independent thirty-year-old single – begins to suspect that the family
she hasn’t been in touch with for years is actually not even related to her by
blood. She hires a private detective, who discovers many surprising leads but is
ultimately unable to help.Beata’s search for the truth about her past is assisted
by her friend – the erratic Ula who, incidentally, wants to make a match between
her and her brother Jacek. The avalanche of events is unleashed when Beata
receives an invitation from her family to the wedding of the sister she hates… The Dead Lake is a fascinating combination of a crime story and a romance,
sparkling with ironic humor – this book will have you hooked from page one! BOOK DETAILS: Martwe jezioro, novel
Prószyński Media 2008
232 pages
ISBN 978-83-7648-293-4
crime & Thriller
www.proszynski.pl
Joanna Szwechłowicz Joanna Szwechłowicz – graduate of Inter-Faculty Individual Liberal Studies,
Polish philologist and sociologist. She used to teach comparative literature,
comparative analysis of literary texts and electronic media analysis at the
University of Warsaw. Her very warmly received first novel, The Mystery of the
Girls’ School, was published in 2014. She lives in Warsaw.
SELECTED REVIEWS
Szwechłowicz is a true master of style. The reader takes pleasure in following
not only the investigation of murder, but also literary threads – associations and
references to favorite writers and books, which shine through the tale.
Dorota Koman, journalist
Joanna Szwechłowicz Last Will
A fascinating retro crime story evocative of the master of the genre, Agatha
Christie. A bunch of distant relatives cut off from the world, united by mutual
suspicions – and by a crime.
For the lovers of classics in new, delicious incarnations.
On 30 December 1938, almost all the relatives of baroness Wirydianna Korzycka,
lured by her ruse, appear in her palace. In her letter, the woman informed them
that she intends to quit life on the New Year’s Eve. On her own terms.
BOOK DETAILS: Ostatnia wola, novel
Prószyński Media 2015
280 pages
ISBN 978-83-8069-004-2
Joanna Szwechłowicz THE MYSTERY
OF THE GIRLS’ SCHOOL
A tasty, compelling, multi-layer novel full of intelligent humor, flirting with the
retro crime story genre. 26 November 1922, Mańkowice in the former Prussian
annex. Scandal in a girls’ school – one of the student hung herself! The body is
discovered by Łucja Kalinowska, natural sciences teacher, who is not yet thirty
herself. The policeman in charge of the investigation is the Assistant Police
Commissioner Hieronim Ratajczak. The mysterious death of Marianna Szulc
definitely doesn’t suit him, especially given the apparent involvement of the
most prominent people – maybe not in the country, but certainly in Mańkowice.
BOOK DETAILS: Tajemnica szkoły dla panien, novel
44
Prószyński Media 2014
322 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-691-8
children’s FICTION
BEATA KRUPSKA
Beata Krupska – Polish writer of children’s and young adults books, screenplays
and cartoon dialogue (Trips to Fairy Tales, Scenes from the Life of Dragons).
She published a collection of poems Going to the slave fair by tram and fairy
tales: Scenes from the Life of Dragons, The Tale of Agatka and The Adventures
of Euzebiusz.
Beata Krupska, illustrated by Zbigniew Larwa
THE ADVENTURES OF EUZEBIUSZ
Euzebiusz (the World’s First Euzebiusz) embarks on a journey full of
adventures and new acquaintances right after his birth. He looks for other
Euzebiuszes – or at least interesting friends. Along the way, he meets the
conceited Cock, the Fox who speaks in capital letters, the crazy Bear and
many other creatures which allow him to discover how good it is to swim,
read, count or be able to build a house. He learns conceitedness, being
a quasi-mole and helping, he discovers the secret of the beauty pill and the
miracle of making the dear ones happy. And he doesn’t feel lonely even for
a single moment, even though he could, as he is still the only Euzebiusz.
BOOK DETAILS: Przygody Euzebiusza Prószyński Media 2015 (first edition 1986)
ISBN 978-83-7961-215-4
64 pages
Beata Krupska, illustrated by Zbigniew Larwa
SCENES FROM THE LIFE
OF DRAGONS
The legendary mini-novel in 15 scenes – not only for children.
The dragons created by Beata Krupska are unlike any other fairy tale reptile.
They are united in their variety: they all have vacuum flasks full of pickled
cucumber soup hanging around their necks, devour butter-fried toadstools
and sure can’t fly. Instead, they live in a forest clearing, trying to avoid people.
And they are not agreeable at all, just the opposite – they are conceited,
grouchy creatures. But then it is impossible not to like them, if only for their
resourcefulness and their sense of humor.
BOOK DETAILS: Sceny z życia smoków Prószyński Media 2014 (first edition 1987)
ISBN 978-83-7961-110-2 64 pages
biography & MemoIr
www.proszynski.pl
BARBARA HOLLENDER
Barbara Hollender – film critic, head of the Critics’ Section of the Polish
Filmmakers Association (the Polish section of FIPRESCI), member
of the European Film Academy. Since 1992, collaborator of the
„Rzeczpospolita” journal, where she publishes, among others, reports
of the Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Karlovy Vary and Gdynia festivals. In
2000-2005, correspondent for „Variety”. She wrote essays on the Polish
cinema for the „International Film Guide” published by the British
publishing house, the Wallflower Press, and co-authored the books The
Stars Up Close and The Tor Studio (with Zofia Turowska). She translated
several novels into Polish, including The Company and Batman.
Barbara Hollender
FROM WAJDA TO KOMASA
A history of the cinema with Poland in the background, but first
and foremost – a story of the people who try to show Poland to the
audience.
Why did Małgorzata Szumowska try to convince herself that she was
a Dadaist during her school years? Why did Paweł Pawlikowski return
to his homeland after years of emigration? Would Wojciech Smarzowski
be capable of directing a rom-com? And why does Ryszard Bugajski
keep saying that „trouble is his thing”? A story of a few generations of Polish artists, whose biographies,
generational experiences, values, ambitions and longings are worlds
apart. From Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Kieślowski and Agnieszka Holland,
through the Krauzes and Wojciech Smarzowski, to the generation aged
forty and under: Tomasz Wasilewski or Jan Komasa, who have already
attracted their faithful audience. SELECTED REVIEWS
Only a true lover of the Polish cinema could show these complex
relationships in so fascinating way.
Łukasz Maciejewski, „Dziennik. Gazeta Prawna”
BOOK DETAILS: Od Wajdy do Komasy
46
Prószyński Media 2014
448 pages
ISBN 978-83-7961-010-5
biography & MemoIr
JAN OSIECKI, ZBIGNIEW RELIGA
Jan Osiecki (b. 1977) – sociologist by education, journalist by profession
and by passion. For fifteen years, he disclosed the behind-the-scenes
of politics, providing content to „Newsweek”, Radio PiN, Polish Radio
Three and other media. He also co-authored a series of books The Last
Flight, a report of journalistic investigation regarding the causes and
the course of the Smolensk air disaster.
Zbigniew Religa (1938–2009) – the master and the teacher of at least
half of the Polish cardiac surgeons. A doctor who performed the first
successful heart transplant, the spiritus movens of the Polish Artificial
Heart, a politician, a presidential candidate, a Minister of Health.
A scientist who tried to boil the ocean, attained his goals against all odds
and created the Cardiac Surgery Clinic in Zabrze, the most renowned in
Poland, just as the People’s Republic of Poland was going bankrupt.
Jan Osiecki, Zbigniew Religa
ZBIGNIEW RELIGA
THE MAN WITH THE HEART
IN THE PALM OF HIS HAND
The history of the outstanding cardiac surgeon who performed the
first successful heart transplant in Poland and in the Eastern bloc…
In his only such long and candid conversation with a journalist, Zbigniew
Religa told a fascinating and often chilling story of the frontier times
of Polish medicine, of preparations, not without dramatic twists, for
the first successful heart transplant in Poland, of the extraordinary
medical solutions used for want of money – such as immersing the
patients under general anesthesia in ice-cold water in order to induce
hypothermia which enabled to perform a surgery instantly, without
specialized life support equipment. Zbigniew Religa is also a universal
(understandable regardless of the cultural environment) conversation
about life, addictions, dreams, human ambitions – but also about
combatting the disease and impending death (of both the patients
and the protagonist – the interview was completed two weeks before
Professor Religa’s death).
The story written down by Jan Osiecki also helped create the script for
the film Gods, telling the story of Professor Zbigniew Religa’s life.
BOOK DETAILS: Zbigniew Religa, extended interview Prószyński Media 2014 (first edition 2009)
ISBN 978-83-7961-115-7
208 pages
biography & MemoIr
www.proszynski.pl
VIOLETTA OZMINKOWSKI
Violetta Ozminkowski – for twelve years, a journalist and editor at
„Newsweek”, head of the „Society” section. The co-author of Marek
Edelman’s biography The Doctor and the God, the author of the
extended interview with Grzegorz Miecugow, The Lens and the Eye,
recently the editor of the book by Monika Jaruzelska Miss Comrade.
SELECTED REVIEWS
It’s a biography my mom has deserved for a long time. Candid to the
extreme, true and controversial. Just as Michalina Wisłocka was.
Krystyna Bielewicz, the daughter of Michalina Wisłocka
The biography is full of emotional exhibitionism, trivia, intimate fragments,
confessions and reminiscences. Together, they make up the image of
a woman who could offer herself entirely in love, but who could not live.
Magdalena Wołowicz, blogger
Violetta Ozminkowski
MICHALINA WISŁOCKA
THE ART OF LOVING A SCANDALMONGER
A tale of the first lady of the Polish sexology.
Was she a strong and brave women or an uninhibited scandalmonger?
The recently discovered journals of Michalina Wisłocka unveil her
private life. Her book The Art of Lovemaking was recommended reading
for each Polish couple for a number of years. If allowed millions of
Poles to learn how much pleasure sex can give, how great an art
lovemaking is and how the pleasure can be boosted with a little help.
It was her who spoke of the woman’s pleasure, of conscious maternity
and of contraception. It was her who unleashed the Polish sexual
revolution just before the downfall of Communism. Even though
she often said she had nothing to hide, her life was full of secrets. She loved many men and seduced them, even though she discovered
the joy of sex at a later age. She had a ménage à trois with her
husband and her friend. She pretended to be a mother of twins. Here
is a tale of a life which embodied the sexual revolution, no taboos.
The discovered previously unpublished fragments of her journals,
combined with the tales of her daughter and of other people who used
to be close to her, unveil a previously unknown face one of the biggest
icons of the People’s Republic of Poland.
BOOK DETAILS: Michalina Wisłocka, biography
48
Prószyński Media 2014
304 pages
ISBN 978-83-7839-741-0
www.proszynski.pl
Indeks
CONTENTS
FICTION
LITERARY FICTION, p. 1
WOMEN`S FICTION, p. 6
CRIME & THRILLER, p. 32
CHILDREN`S FICTION, p. 45
NON-FICTION
BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR, p. 46
ABOUT US
Prószyński Media is one of the largest book publishing companies in
Poland. It has been operating since 1990 and today it publishes about
200 titles a year under Prószyński i S-ka imprint.
We publish Polish and foreign classics, modern fiction and non-fiction,
children’s and young adult titles as well as general interest books.
Among our writers there are outstanding Polish authors: Henryk
Jerzy Chmielewski, Maria Czubaszek, Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński,
Marek Harny, Grażyna Jeromin-Gałuszka, Stefan Kisielewski, Irena
Matuszkiewicz, Agnieszka Osiecka, Olga Rudnicka, Maria Ulatowska
and Tanya Valko.
Prószyński Media is constantly expanding its foreign fiction and
non-fiction list including such great authors as Virginia C. Andrews,
Orson Scott Card, Diana Chamberlain, Jeffery Deaver, Ursula K. Le
Guin, John Irving, Henry James, Stephen King, Dennis Lehane, Liane
Moriarty, Jodi Picoult, Terry Pratchett, Nora Roberts, John Steinbeck
and Amy Tan.
okladka_2.indd 2
FICTION
BIESIEKIRSKI BARTŁOMIEJ, Jasnowidz, p. 32
CZUPRYŃSKA SABINA, Kobiety z domu Soni, p. 6
CZUPRYŃSKA SABINA, Ta druga, słodka i ostra, p. 6
CZUPRYŃSKA SABINA, Zawirowanie, p. 1
FRYCZKOWSKA ANNA, Kobieta bez twarzy, p. 33
FRYCZKOWSKA ANNA, Kurort Amnezja, p. 7
FRYCZKOWSKA ANNA, Starsza pani wnika, p. 33
FRYCZKOWSKA ANNA, Z grubsza Wenus, p. 8
HARNY MAREK, Dwie kochanki, p. 2
HARNY MAREK, Pismak, p. 34
HARNY MAREK, W imię zasad, p. 34
JASZCZUK PAWEŁ, Akuszer śmierci, p. 35
JASZCZUK PAWEŁ, Marionetki, p. 36
JASZCZUK PAWEŁ, Plan Sary, p. 36
JEROMIN-GAŁUSZKA GRAŻYNA,
Długie lato w Magnolii, p. 10
JEROMIN-GAŁUSZKA GRAŻYNA,
Gdybyś mnie kochała, p. 11
JEROMIN-GAŁUSZKA GRAŻYNA,
Kobiety z Czerwonych Bagien, p. 11
JEROMIN-GAŁUSZKA GRAŻYNA, Magnolia, p. 10
JEROMIN-GAŁUSZKA GRAŻYNA, Złote nietoperze, p. 11
JEROMIN-GAŁUSZKA GRAŻYNA, Złoty sen, p. 9
KOŁCZEWSKA KATARZYNA, Idealne życie, p. 12
KOŁCZEWSKA KATARZYNA, Kto, jak nie ja?, p. 13
KOŁCZEWSKA KATARZYNA, Wbrew sobie, p. 13
KRUPSKA BEATA, Przygody Euzebiusza, p. 45
KRUPSKA BEATA, Sceny z życia smoków, p. 45
LEMBERG MATEUSZ M., Patron, p. 38
LEMBERG MATEUSZ M., Zasługa nocy, p. 37
MARAT JOANNA, Jedenaście tysięcy dziewic, p. 14
MARAT JOANNA, Monogram, p. 38
MATUSZKIEWICZ IRENA, Agencja Złamanych Serc, p. 16
MATUSZKIEWICZ IRENA, Dziewczyny do wynajęcia, p. 17
MATUSZKIEWICZ IRENA, Modliszka, p. 16
MATUSZKIEWICZ IRENA, Przerwana podróż, p. 15
MATUSZKIEWICZ IRENA, Przeklęte, zaklęte, p. 17
MATUSZKIEWICZ IRENA, Salonowe życie, p. 16
MATUSZKIEWICZ IRENA, Szepty, p. 17
MISZCZUK JOANNA, Córki swoich matek, p. 19
MISZCZUK JOANNA, Matki, żony, czarownice, p. 18
MISZCZUK JOANNA, Zalotnice i wiedźmy, p. 19
PACHOLSKI ARKADIUSZ, Niemra, p. 3
PIETRZYK IZABELA, Babskie gadanie, p. 21
PIETRZYK IZABELA, Histerie rodzinne, p. 21
PIETRZYK IZABELA, Rodzinny park atrakcji, p. 20
PIETRZYK IZABELA, Wieczór panieński, p. 21
PUZYŃSKA KATARZYNA, Motylek, p. 40
PUZYŃSKA KATARZYNA, Trzydziesta pierwsza, p. 40
PUZYŃSKA KATARZYNA, Więcej czerwieni, p. 40
PUZYŃSKA KATARZYNA, Z jednym wyjątkiem, p. 39
RAK RADOSŁAW, Kocham cię, Lilith, p. 4
RUDNICKA OLGA, Cichy wielbiciel, p. 43
RUDNICKA OLGA, Czy ten rudy kot to pies?, p. 43
RUDNICKA OLGA, Do trzech razy Natalie, p. 41
RUDNICKA OLGA, Drugi przekręt Natalii, p. 42
RUDNICKA OLGA, Fartowny pech, p. 42
RUDNICKA OLGA, Martwe jezioro, p. 43
RUDNICKA OLGA, Natalii 5, p. 42
SZWECHŁOWICZ JOANNA, Ostatnia wola, p. 44
SZWECHŁOWICZ JOANNA,
Tajemnica szkoły dla panien, p. 44
ULATOWSKA MARIA, Całkiem nowe życie, p. 24
ULATOWSKA MARIA, Domek nad morzem, p. 25
ULATOWSKA MARIA, Kamienica przy Kruczej, p. 24
ULATOWSKA MARIA, Pensjonat Sosnówka, p. 23
ULATOWSKA MARIA, Prawie siostry, p. 25
ULATOWSKA MARIA, Przypadki pani Eustaszyny, p. 24
ULATOWSKA MARIA, Rodzina z Sosnówki, p. 22
ULATOWSKA MARIA, Sosnowe dziedzictwo, p. 23
VALKO TANYA, Arabska córka, p. 27
VALKO TANYA, Arabska krew, p. 28
VALKO TANYA, Arabska księżniczka, p. 28
VALKO TANYA, Arabska żona, p. 27
VALKO TANYA, Miłość na bali, p. 26
VALKO TANYA, Okruchy raju, p. 27
ZACZYŃSKA MARIOLA, Kobieta z Impetem, p. 29
ZACZYŃSKA MARIOLA, Szkodliwy pakiet cnót, p. 29
ZIMNY-LOUIS MAGDALENA,
Kilka przypadków szczęśliwych, p. 30
ŻÓŁCIŃSKA WANDA, Najdroższa, p. 5
ŻUKOWSKA IZABELA, Skazy, p. 31
NON-FICTION
HOLLENDER BARBARA, Od Wajdy do Komasy, p. 46
OSIECKI JAN, Zbigniew Religa, p. 47
OZMINKOWSKI VIOLETTA, Michalina Wisłocka, p. 48
2015-04-21 15:38:47
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