Children`s books

Transcription

Children`s books

2012
RIGHTS DEPARTMENT:
www.znak-rights.com
RIGHTS DIRECTOR:
Anna Rucińska
[email protected]
Direct tel.:
(+48) 12 61 99 506
About us
A GOOD IDEA
2
http://www.znak-rights.com
Znak was founded
in 1959 in answer to
a call from the weekly
newspaper Tygodnik
Powszechny to preserve
in book form the work
of those writing for it
and for the monthly
Znak. Some 900 people
responded to the appeal,
and although they could
not be sure they were
supporting an initiative
that would last, they
thought it a good idea.
Despite all sorts of
obstacles, including
censorship, political
upheavals and the tough
demands of capitalism,
Znak is doing well on the
publishing market and is
achieving success. More
than just a publishing
house, it also provides
a forum for important
debate, and thus it makes
a major contribution to
Polish culture. In our
publishing work we meet
a wide range of needs,
producing publications
that interpret the world,
mankind, history and
the modern era, through
to top-quality fiction
and non-fiction, as well
as light reading and
books for the youngest
generation. After all,
Znak is a young company,
one year younger than
Paddington Bear, and
the same age as Le Petit
Nicolas.
Contents
9
10
11
12
13
13
14
15
16
17
17
18
18
19
19
21
21
22
23
24
24
25
25
26
26
27
Marek Krajewski
The Rivers of Hades
Marek Krajewski
The Erinyes
Marek Krajewski
Charon’s Numbers
Wiesław Myśliwski
The Horizon
Wiesław Myśliwski
A Treatise on Bean-Shelling
Wiesław Myśliwski
Stone upon Stone
Hubert Klimko-Dobrzaniecki
Bornholm, Bornholm
Paweł Huelle
Paweł Huelle
Who Was David Weiser?
Paweł Huelle
Cold Sea Tales
Paweł Huelle
The Last Supper
Paweł Huelle
Stories for a Time of Relocation
Paweł Huelle
Mercedes-Benz
Paweł Huelle
Castorp
Antoni Libera
Madame
Antoni Libera
Godot and His Shadow
Maria Nurowska
Maria Nurowska
The Door to Hell
Maria Nurowska
Your Name
Maria Nurowska
Maidens and Widows, vol.1-3
Maria Nurowska
Return to Lvov
Maria Nurowska
The Lover
Maria Nurowska
Russian Lover
Maria Nurowska
German Dance
Maria Nurowska
Two Loves
27 Maria Nurowska
47
To Feed the Wolves
28 Maria Nurowska
48
Requiem for a Wolf
28 Maria Nurowska
The Moon over Zakopane
29 Maria Nurowska
49
Love Letters
29 Maria Nurowska
50
Tango for Three
30 Maria Nurowska
51
The Case of Nina S.
30 Maria Nurowska
52
Spanish Eyes
31 Maria Nurowska
53
Anna’s Choice
31 Maria Nurowska
54
My Friend the Traitor
33 Andrzej Franaszek
Miłosz. A Biography
34 Wojciech Jagielski
Scorching the Grass
35 Travels with Ryszard Kapuściński
Thirteen Translators Tell Their Stories
35 Travels with Ryszard Kapuściński, part 2.
The Tales of Fourteen Translators
36 Ryszard Kapuściński
A Reporter: Self-portrait
36 Ryszard Kapuściński
The Rapid Current of History.
Writings on the 20th and 21st Centuries
37 Beata Nowacka,
37 Zygmunt Ziątek
Ryszard Kapuściński. A Writer’s Biography
38 Andrzej Szczeklik
Immortality. The Promethean dream of medicine.
Catharsis
Kore
41 Małgorzata Szejnert
The Black Garden
42 Małgorzata Szejnert
Gateway Island
43 Karolina Lanckorońska
44 Karolina Lanckorońska
Those Who Trespass Against Us
45 Ewa K. Czaczkowska
Biography of Saint Faustina
Przemysław Wechterowicz,
Marta Ignerska
Great Dreams
Aleksandra Mizielińska,
Daniel Mizieliński
Who Eats Whom
Andrzej Maleszka
Magic Tree. Tale 1. The Red Chair
Andrzej Maleszka
Magic Tree. Tale 2. The Mystery
of a Bridge
Andrzej Maleszka
Magic Tree. Tale 3. The Giant
Michał Rusinek
Little Chopin
Joanna Olech
Pompom’s Children
Joanna Olech
Pompom the Sink Dragon
3
4
Featured titles
FICTION
Maria Nurowska
The Door to Hell
Bornholm, Bornholm
NON-FICTION
Andrzej Franaszek
Wojciech Jagielski
Scorching the Grass
CHILDREN’S
Aleksandra Mizielińska
Daniel Mizieliński
Who Eats Whom
Andrzej Maleszka
The Magic Tree. The Giant
5
p //
g
Authors list
FICTION
Margaret Atwood
John Banville
Heinrich Böll
Candace Bushnell
Albert Camus
Angela Carter
J.M. Coetzee
Joseph Conrad
Junot Díaz
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Karin Fossum
Bohumil Hrabal
Paweł Huelle
Ismail Kadare
Marek Krajewski
Kazimierz Kutz
James Joyce
Jhumpa Lahiri
Antoni Libera
Ian McEwan
Mario Vargas Llosa
Richard Lourie
Yann Martel
Eduardo Mendoza
Zbigniew Mentzel
Wiesław Myśliwski
Joyce Carol Oates
Victor Pelevin
Ernesto Sabato
Lydie Salvayre
Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Zadie Smith
Koji Suzuki
Tatyana Tolstaya
Dubravka Ugresič
Jeanette Winterson
Virginia Woolf
POETRY
Joseph Brodsky
Robert Hass
Seamus Heaney
Edward Hirsch
Jane Hirshfield
Yusef Komunyakaa
Denise Levertov
Czesław Miłosz
Anna Piwkowska
Jacek Podsiadło
Tomasz Różycki
Wisława Szymborska
Karol Wojtyła
Ko Un
Adam Zagajewski
NON-FICTION
Chris Anderson
Timothy Garton Ash
Stanisław Barańczak
Władysław Bartoszewski
Neal Bascomb
Antony Beevor
Samuel Beckett
Joseph Brodsky
Józef Czapski
Norman Davies
Umberto Eco
Anne Fadiman
Anne Frank
Francis Fukuyama
Atul Gawande
Jan Garavaglia
Malcolm Gladwell
Jan T. Gross
Richard Hammond
Ryszard Kapuściński
Ian Kershaw
Martin Lindstrom
Anna Politkovskaya
Mary Roach
Robert Service
E. Benjamin Skinner
Timothy Snyder
Andrzej Szczeklik
Małgorzata Szejnert
Jürgen Thorwald
Andrzej Wajda
THEOLOGY
Yves Congar
Louis Dupré
Paul Evdokimov
Romano Guardini
René Laurentin
Henri de Lubac
Richard Niebuhr
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope John Paul II
Joseph Ratzinger
Max Thurian
PHILOSOPHY
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
Saint Thomas Aquinas
Saint Augustine
Henri Bergson
Martin Buber
Etienne Gilson
Georg W. F. Hegel
Martin Heidegger
Michał Heller
Karl Jaspers
Immanuel Kant
Leszek Kołakowski
Emmanuel Lévinas
Krzysztof Michalski
Karl Popper
Franz Rosenzweig
Barbara Skarga
Richard Swinburne
Xavier Tilliette
Józef Tischner
Claude Tresmontant
Bernhard Welte
J.M. Barrie
Michael Bond
F.C. Boyce
Christianna Brand
Michael Ende
Ted Hughes
John Green
Anthony Horowitz
Janosch
Barry Jonsberg
Paul McCartney
Geraldine McCaughrean
Philip Pullman
Sempé & Goscinny
Alex Shearer
Francesca Simon
Dubravka Ugresič
Fiction
7
About the author:
Marek Krajewski (b. 1966)
was for many years a classics
lecturer at the University of
Wroclaw but a few years ago
he quit lecturing in favour of
writing literary thrillers. He
is the author of a best-selling
series of novels featuring
Kriminalabtailung Direktor
Eberhard Mock and inspector
Edward Popielski. Krajewski’s
debut Śmierć w Breslau
(Death in Breslau) appeared
in 1999. This one and the
subsequent novels from the
Breslau series have been
published in 12 countries and
the rights to the series have
been sold to 18 countries.
Marek Krajewski’s major
awards include: Polityka’s
Passport, an award given to
the author of the best literary
achievement in a certain year,
the High Calibre Award for
the best crime novel of the
year and the Wroclaw Mayor
Award.
He lives in Wroclaw and
teaches creative writing in
Krakow.
8
Marek Krajewski
The Rivers of Hades
Praise for Marek Krajewski’s previous novels:
“Krajewski has Mankell’s
sharp eye for detail,
but he has, too, a more
sophisticated frame
of reference that may
intrigue fans of Umberto
Eco and Boris Akunin...
[an] erudite novel... The
atmosphere of the novel
is claustrophobic... Death
in Breslau is a stylish,
intelligent and original
addition to the genre.”
Financial Times
“The city of Breslau (today’s
Wroclaw) is as much
a character in this thriller
as the parade of gothic
loons that inhabit it.”
Daily Telegraph
“Part of the black magic
in this book is the
reimagination of what
is now the Polish city of
Wroclaw as it was for 700
years, the German city of
Breslau.”
The Times
“Krajewski’s vision of
Breslau in 1933... is
reminiscent of Georg
Grosz... Death in Breslau
isn’t just an exciting
mystery, it’s the story
of a lost Fatherland...
Wonderful.”
The Guardian
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
9
FICTION
About The Rivers of Hades:
The Rivers of Hades is the
third part of the trilogy
about Inspector Edward
Popielski.
When WWII broke out,
no one knew how the
world would look after
it would end. However,
what happened surpassed
everyone’s expectations.
In order to survive Edward
Popielski, Lvov’s most
famous inspector, lost
everything, even his identity.
He had to cross the river
of forgetfulness, which
had flooded the pre-war
world. In 1946 Popielski
finds himself in the ruins
of Wroclaw, where he
has to hide because like
many other members of
the Polish Home Army,
he is being prosecuted
by the Communist secret
police. Himself a wanted
man, Popielski conducts
an investigation he had
started in 1933 in Lvov.
A young girl, the daughter
of Lvov’s underworld
king, was kidnapped and
raped. When the scenario
is repeated after 13 years,
Popielski again becomes an
investigator and fights for
the life of a high Communist
secret service official, but
not only because his own
and his cousins lives are at
stake as well.
Marek Krajewski
The Erinyes
RIGHTS SOLD:
Ukraine (Urbino)
sophisticated frame
Financial Times
Wroclaw) is as much
Daily Telegraph
in this book is the
Breslau.”
The Times
10
Wonderful.”
The Guardian
FICTION
About The Erinyes:
The linchpin of Marek
Krajewski’s new novel is
a meeting that although
specious, is also relevant
to the plot, between a well
preserved old lady and
a very elderly gent who
“stinks like a corpse” – as
he himself puts it – on
the Breslau Marketplace.
This scene takes place in
modern times, on a warm
summer morning in 2008.
The gentleman tells the
lady a story in which he
features as the hero.
And so we shift to Lwow
on the eve of the Second
World War and at once we
get a sense of déjà vu, as
the events described seem
somehow familiar.
In fact, it is exactly the
same day, the very same
courtyard, the same grisly
sight, and the same hideous
murder we witnessed in
Krajewski’s previous book,
The Minotaur’s Head. The
broken, crushed, crippled
body of three-year-old
Henio Pytka is found by
chance in a courtyard privy.
This time further events will
develop around this murder.
Solving the riddle of this
despicable offence can only
be tackled by one man –
Commissioner Edward
Popielski.
It will soon transpire that
the child’s death and its
perpetrator are far closer to
Popielski than might have
seemed possible, and that
is because the degenerate
who committed this act
deserving the intervention
of the Erinyes themselves,
is targeting the youngest
and most innocent citizens
of Lwow. And besides
the victim, Henio Pytka,
these include Popelski’s
own eighteen-month-old
grandson, Jerzyk.
So the hunt for the
evildoer begins. Across
the cobblestones of Lwow,
picking up false leads and
letting them fool him, the
Commissioner conducts
an inquiry that leads to at
least one misfortune along
the way, the emotional
breakdown of some and
then others, and finally
an error pregnant with
consequences of the most
incredible kind. As ever,
the culprit will be found,
caught and punished,
but in this case it will be
an exceptionally Pyrrhic
victory. The price that will
have to be paid for it will
be far higher than that
of a cup of coffee at the
smartest café on Hetman’s
Embankment. Alecto,
Tisiphone and Megaera –
the Erinyes, present
Popielski and his family
with a very expensive bill.
There’s a corpse-like smell
in the air.
Marek Krajewski
Charon’s Numbers
sophisticated frame
Financial Times
Wroclaw) is as much
Daily Telegraph
in this book is the
Breslau.”
The Times
Wonderful.”
The Guardian
RIGHTS SOLD:
Ukraine (Urbino)
11
FICTION
About Charon’s Numbers:
May 1929. Lviv. Comissioner
Edward Popielski was
thrown out of police for
insubordination. Finally, he
has enough time for solving
equations and… love. It is
the beautiful Renata who
talks him into undertaking
a risky job that soon lands
him in trouble. An Lviv
is once again is unquiet.
One brutal murder after
another. And only the police
know what is written in
a mysterious letter from the
murderer.
In Charon’s Numbers,
Popielski has a chance to
change his life – get back to
the police and start a family
with a beloved woman.
But love is blind, just like
justice…
Wiesław Myśliwski
The Horizon
About the author:
Wiesław Myśliwski is the author of novels and plays
which are usually discussed in the context of “peasant
literature”, dealing with the problems of the identities of
villages and their inhabitants in times of historical change.
However, his work transcends this literary category thanks
to its philosophical and anthropological importance.
He is the author of, among others, the novel Naked Orchard
(1967), the play The Steward (1978) and the novel The
Palace (1970). Myśliwski’s broadest epic of the peasant
fate is the novel Stone upon Stone (1984), a masterpiece of
post-war Polish literature, the apotheosis of the peasant
tradition.
12
FICTION
About:
This is a new edition of one of the most important novels
of the last decade. It won the 1997 Nike Literary Prize for
the best book of the year. The novel is set in a provincial
world, seen through the eyes of an adolescent boy.
The plot, the protagonists and the events in this novel are
like the reality that surrounds us – not fully transparent
and explainable, demanding to pay close attention, and
to consider our inner sense and the consequences of our
actions.
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
Jerzy Jarzębski
Wiesław Myśliwski
About:
In a monologue to his
mysterious visitor, the
protagonist of Myśliwski’s
novel sums up his whole
life in one day, as he shells
beans. The intricately
crafted story with its
varying temporal planes
offers an insight into hidden
senses of human destiny,
the relation of chance and
fate, the difference between
the authentic and the sham,
or normality and madness.
The great historical
fresco encompasses the
protagonist’s childhood
marred by the trauma
of war, his youth with its
delusions and lies, and the
everyday life in a country
on which “the best system
in the world” is imposed,
the ensuing Wander – and
Bildungsjahre, a stint of
earning a living abroad, and
finally the time of summing
up the bitter knowledge, the
harvest of a long life.
is not only a huge epic
panorama, but first
Winner of the 2006 Nike Literary Prize.
and foremost a great
metaphysical novel. Probing
into the Mystery, posing
fundamental existential
questions, tapping the wall
of darkness, Myśliwski
offers no easy answers
or cheap consolations.
He never deceives us
that the Mystery can be
known; on the contrary, he
insists on the need to ask
the questions again and
again despite the acute
awareness that nothing but
darkness lies ahead.
RIGHTS SOLD:
France (Actes Sud)
Italy (Alberto Gaffi Editore)
Israel (Kinneret Zmora)
Lithuania (Mintis)
USA (Archipelago)
Holland (Querido)
Russia (Limbus)
Slovakia (Kalligram)
Czech R. (Havran)
Spain (451 Editores)
Slovenia (KUD)
FICTION
Wiesław Myśliwski
Stone upon Stone
About :
First published in 1984 Stone upon Stone is Myśliwski’s
broadest epic (1984), a masterpiece of postwar Polish
literature, the apotheosis of the peasant tradition.
RIGHTS SOLD:
USA (Archipelago)
Holland (Querido)
Spain (451 Editores)
About the author:
Literary Prize. In 2007
Klimko published two
novels, Kołysanka dla
wisielca (Lullaby for the
Hanged Man) and Raz. Dwa.
Trzy (One. Two. Three). Also
in 2007 he was shortlisted
for the weekly Polityka’s
prize for the most original
young Polish artists.
His life story is a ready-made film script. He
is a traveller, living in
chilly Poland and even
chillier Iceland, and also
Klimko-Dobrzaniecki
a theologian, philosopher
published a collection
and specialist in Icelandic
of stories Stacja Bielawa
philology. Based in Vienna,
Zachodnia (Bielawa
he travels all around
Zachodnia Station) in 2003,
reprinted as Wariat (Madman) Europe and is a sharp
in 2007. He earned his fame observer of his native
with a quasi-novel consisting Poland. To date his books
have been published in
of two novellas, Dom
Róży. Krýsuvík (The House of Italy, France and Bulgaria,
immediately winning
Róża. Krýsuvík), shortlisted
for Poland’s most prestigious both critical approval and
readers’ appreciation.
literary prize, the Nike
Fot. Bożydar Pająk
(b. 1967) studied theology,
philosophy as well as
Icelandic language and
literature. He wrote seven
books (two collections of
his poetry have appeared in
Icelandic). For over 10 years
he studied and worked in
Reykjavik (including work
in a psychiatric hospital and
an old people’s home). He
moved to Vienna in 2007.
14
Bornholm, Bornholm
About:
Two narrations, two stories
connected by accident or
fate. The characters of
Dobrzaniecki’s latest novel
live in the state of constant
tension. They fight – their
instincts, desires, and
their emotions. They fight
for dignity and the right to
decide about the course of
their lives. Both heroes of
the novel are united by the
same desire, articulated
repeatedly by different
voices.
The first hero is Horst
Bartlik – biology teacher,
husband, father of two
children. Unfortunately, he
is unable to be happy. All his
small and big yearnings are
suppressed by his wife, who
also begins to be sexually
frigid, which frustrates
Horst immensely. He begins
to feel true disgust towards
his own wife, he becomes
more and more depressed
by the idea that the only
thing that keeps them
together are the children.
They act out their miserable
roles for them, but Horst
has more and more
difficulties with hiding signs
of rebellion. He escapes to
a new place which reminds
him of his childhood. He
wants to forget for at least
a moment, to encounter
something other than
frigidity. He waits only for
an opportunity to escape,
but fate faces him with
another challenge, World
War Two, even though he
already fights in a private
war at home with his
wife. Directed to the base
at Bornholm, he slowly
awakens to life, regains
15
FICTION
his former self-confidence
and masculinity. He did
not expect war to give him
a chance to love again.
Bartlik’s story is interrupted
by a story of a young man,
whose only listener is his
mother in a coma. She is
the at the same time the
object of her son’s love
and hatred. He tells her
his whole life because her
expectations were always
overwhelming him, and
only now he has a chance to
articulate that. It was hard
for him to become a man,
with her overprotectiveness
RIGHTS SOLD:
Italy (Keller)
and with no role model –
she never allowed him
to meet his father. Her
personality influenced his
whole life, difficult as it was.
The amount of defeats and
miseries he experienced is
simply horrifying.
There is something
fascinating in this novel.
Perhaps it is a unique
austerity, brought to
literature only by men.
First of all – a tragedy of
people so deeply wounded
that they are unable to be
happy. Their struggles are
like a training ground full
of the worst obstacles –
people who hurt them. And
each hurt leaves a deep
mark they have to learn
to live with. They fall, they
rise. Endlessly, for the fight
continues.
Bornholm, Bornholm is
a moving depiction of
loneliness and internal fight
written by theauthor who
tells the most important
truths in a style balancing
on the verge of seriousness
and joke. Dobrzaniecki
creates a world which we
observe with a smile or
disbelief.
Paweł Huelle
About the author:
Paweł Huelle is a novelist and poet.
He was born in Gdansk in 1957 and
graduated in Polish Philology at the
University of Gdansk. He worked
as a university lecturer, journalist
and director of the Gdansk Polish
Television Centre. Honoured with
many prestigious literary awards,
Huelle is one of the most successful
contemporary Polish writers.
His first novel Who Was David Weiser
(1987) was hailed by the critics as “the
book of the decade,” “a masterpiece”
and “a literary triumph” and has
been published in Germany, Spain,
France and Finland. It is a story
of a mysterious disappearance of
a Jewish boy during his summer
vacations. Many years later Dawidek’s
friend sets out to investigate the
events that came to shape his entire
life. The novel has been described as
a coming-of-age story, an adventure
novel or even as a philosophical
treatise.
Like Who Was David Weiser?, Huelle’s
next two books Stories for a Time of
Relocation (1991) and First Love
and Other Stories (1996) are set in his
home town of Gdansk and its environs,
even though they are concerned with
different historical periods and social
milieus.
16
When I finish a book, I hope that some
images will settle in my mind. I hope
there are some of those in the book –
powerful images for the readers to take
away.
From an interview
in The Independent
Paweł Huelle
Who Was David Weiser?
About:
“An intoxicating read,” “a masterpiece,” “novel of the
decade,” “a book so good it’s fearsome” – this is just
a random pick from the enthusiastic praise showered on
Who Was David Weiser? by the critics in Poland and abroad.
Hailed as the best Polish novel of the 1980’s, translated
into a number of languages, it made Paweł Huelle famous
and granted him a secure position as one of Poland’s most
important contemporary writers.
In 2000 it was adapted for the screen. According to the
director, Wojciech Marczewski, Weiser (starring, among
others, Marek Kondrat, Krystyna Janda, Piotr Fronczewski
and Zbigniew Zamachowski) is a film about “memory, its
terrible power and its fallibility.”
None of the interpretations of Paweł Huelle’s novel have
solved the mystery of the little David Weiser. Who was he?
Why did he draw his friends’ attention to himself? What truth
was hidden behind his unusual ideas and experiments? And
finally, why did he disappear all of a sudden?
ALL RIGHTS AVAILABLE
PREVIOUSLY
PUBLISHED IN:
Italy (Feltrinelli)
Germany (Luchterhand/
Roman Fischer)
Czech Republic (Mlada
Fronta)
Sweden (Brombergs)
Hungary (Europa Kiadó)
Norway (Gyldendal)
Finland (Otava)
Spain (Seix Barral)
Croatia (Naklada MD)
Holland (Amber)
Russia (Azbuka klassika)
UK (Bloomsbury)
US (Harcourt)
France (Bibliotheque
l’age d’homme)
Hebrew (Yediot)
Brasil (Editora Record)
17
FICTION
Paweł Huelle
Cold Sea Tales
About:
In these eleven stories
Pawel Huelle shows his
master craftsmanship
as a teller of beautiful,
evocative stories. Though
each tale is independent,
they all share a setting on
the Baltic coast, whether
of Poland or of Sweden,
and they all feature a large,
significant book, whether it
is the Bible or a homeware
catalogue. They cover
a wide range of genres,
including black comedy –
such as Gendarme Polanke’s
Fifteen Shots of Vodka, in
which the gendarme drinks,
while in parallel scenes the
homeless woman he has
terrorised on the road is
exposed to the elements;
mystery – such as Oland, in
which an enslaved shepherd
on a remote Scandinavian
island encounters a strange
and powerful magus who
shows him the way to
salvation, or Doctor Cheng,
in which a man encounters
a Chinese mystic who
reveals to him the secret
of his wife’s sudden death;
and real events – such
as The Bicycle Express, in
which the narrator recalls
the excitement of the days
when he helped deliver
news bulletins from the
striking dockyard at the
height of the Solidarity
union, or The Flight to
Egypt, where an artist tries
to befriend a beautiful
Chechen refugee and her
suspicious husband.
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
Paweł Huelle
The Last Supper
About:
RIGHTS SOLD:
UK (Serpent’s Tail)
Germany (CH Beck)
Portugal (Principia)
Russia (NLO)
Slovenia (Modrijan Založba)
Czech Republic (Kniha Zlin)
Croatia (Meandar)
The action of Pawel Huelle’s
newest novel takes place in
Gdansk, during a single day,
in the indescript, but not too
distant future. The city has
undergone some substantial
changes; a couple of
streets have again
switched names, mosques
have sprung up near
churches, the lives of the
residents are sporadically
paralyzed by mysterious
explosions – in which some
see the workings of Islamic
fundamentalists, others
the workings of a madman,
while others still suspect
sabotage by the producer of
Monsignore brand wine.
A group of friends from
old times are heading to
a photo session organized
by Matthew, their mutual
friend, who wants to paint
The Last Supper. For each
of them, this day, full of
activities and unforeseeable
coincidences will prove
significant in another way:
each of them will have to
confront their past and
their significant existential
choices. The fate of the
protagonists – in whom,
as if in a mirror, a whole
18
generation of Poles can see
themselves – is just one
tier of this exceptionally
dense literary work. Using
Mateusz’s painting as
a springboard the book also
continually takes up the
controversies surrounding
modern art. The Last
Supper for all its structural
mastery, erudite finesse and
its handy dose of humour,
is above all a merciless
reckoning with Polish
religiosity; it is a poignant
questioning of who we
actually are and what really
constitutes our faith.
FICTION
Paweł Huelle
Stories for a Time of Relocation
About:
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
A collection of short stories which elevate the events
from the narrator’s childhood and youth to a mythical
plane, thus lending to perfectly ordinary things
extraordinary meanings. It turns out that everyday life
is rich in secrets, full of omens and signs which can and
must be deciphered. As the stories unfold, they form
a family saga which takes place mostly in Gdańsk and
Żuławy and Kaszuby, the surrounding countryside of
varied and complex history. It is as much the history of
these places that is told, as the lives of the people who
used to inhabit them and then moved, and those who
succeeded them and settled for good, whether out of
their own free will or out of necessity.
Paweł Huelle
Mercedes-Benz
Over 50 000 copies sold in Poland!
About:
A most entertaining short
novel, which begins in truly
dramatic circumstances:
the main character called
Paweł (just like the Author
to whom he is surprisingly
similar) begins his driving
lessons and almost dies
of shame and humiliation.
Trying to delay an utter
calamity, he resorts to a
truly Hrabalesque trick by
beginning to weave a story
about his grandparents’
cars. So we read of a brandnew Citroën being smashed
by a train or of a mythic
Mercedes-Benz in which
his grandparents, along
with some friends, chase
a balloon thus inventing
a new type of automobile
“fox hunt.” As the story
gradually moves to the
present, Paweł, magnetised
by his instructor’s beauty
and sensitivity, gets to
know some dramatic and
beautiful facts from her
life. This part of the story is
more about different human
fates in Poland at the time
of economic and political
changes. But at some
point Paweł finishes his
classes and parts with his
infatuating instructor. The
story ends with the news of
FICTION
Bohumil Hrabal’s death and
a most impressive literary
praise of his writing and life.
Being an extremely skilled
narrator, Huelle uses
Hrabal’s idea well and
alludes frequently to his
writing yet it is done in a
very non-obtrusive, and
well-balanced manner. The
narration is multi-levelled
and multidimensional,
motives from Hrabal’s
work are interwoven with
contemporary ones as
well as with a nostalgic,
humorous and warm
expedition into a family’s
past.
RIGHTS SOLD:
Germany (C.H. Beck)
Holland (De Geus)
Israel (Xargol)
France (Gallimard)
Yugoslavia (Alfa Narodna)
Croatia (Meandar Media)
Russia (NLO)
Spain (Grup 62)
Turkey (Dogan Kitapcilik)
Italy (Voland)
Romania (Polirom)
Portugal (Principia)
Bulgaria (Colibri)
Ukraine (Suchascnosc) –
magazine edition
Czech Republic (Kniha Zlin)
Lithuania (Mintis)
Paweł Huelle
Castorp
About:
Huelle’s Castorp can be read as a variation on the Magic
Mountain theme, a sort of fantasy based on the Gdansk
motifs in Thomas Mann’s novel, particularly cherished by the
Gdansk-based writer. The life of Hans Castorp, a student
at the Imperial Technical Academy, is monotonous and
predictable, until the unexpected outbreak of a feeling
for a beautiful, unattainable Polish woman. The ensuing
psychic crisis leaves him pondering existential questions
and discovering the darker side of life. With the Gdansk
old town, its fin-de-siècle quarter Wrzeszcz and the
popular seaside resort Sopot for action settings, the novel
is blessed with a distinct, unforgettable atmosphere.
RIGHTS SOLD:
Germany (C.H. Beck)
Slovenia (Litera)
Israel (Am Oved)
Spain (Alianza Editorial)
About the author:
Antoni Libera is a writer, translator and stage director. Among his translations into Polish are all
of Samuel Beckett’s plays and much of his prose. He has also directed many of Beckett’s plays,
both in Poland and abroad (among others Krapp’s Last Tape with David Warrilow at the Haymarket
Leicester and Riverside Studios 1989–1990, and Endgame with Barry MacGovern at the Gate
Theatre, presented at the Barbican in 1999), and has presented them at a number of international
theatre festivals. Beckett, with whom he was in regular contact, called him “my deputy in Eastern
Europe.” He has also translated and written librettos, among others for the Polish composer
Krzysztof Penderecki. In 1990 he made his debut as a playwright at the Royal Court Theatre in
London with his “Platonic dialogue” entitled Eastern Promises (published by Methuen).
His 1998 novel Madame was awarded a number of prizes in Poland and translated into
20 languages. It was published in English by Farrar Straus & Giroux (1999) and Canongate (2000).
In 2002 it was shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and in 2004 nominated for the Prix
Européen de Littérature.
20
Antoni Libera
Madame
About:
Madame is a novel about
a writer’s coming-of-age.
It explores the effects
of dreams and fantasy,
the magic of art and the
possibilities of imagination;
it subtly unveils the nature
of myth and the ways in
which myth comes into
being. An immensely
rich, multilayered
book, part parody, part
fictional autobiography,
Madame chronicles the
stages of the young
narrator’s journey through
frustration, humiliation and
disillusionment to his final
acceptance of his lot as
a writer. At the same time it
is a very moving novel about
strength and frailty, first
love, and a young man’s
comic and painful attempts
to come to terms with the
conflict between the ideals
of the spirit and the realities of the flesh – and to
reconcile, through art, the
opposing forces of reason
and passion.
Readers who admired
Bernhard Schlink’s The
Reader won’t want to
miss this scintillating
bildungsroman...
A sophisticated coming-of-age tale that’s also delicious
high entertainment. Put this
one already on the list of this
year’s best novels.
Kirkus Reviews
Over 90 000 copies sold in Poland!
FICTION
Antoni Libera
Godot and His Shadow
RIGHTS SOLD:
USA (Farrar, Straus
& Giroux)
UK (Canongate)
China (Alpha Books)
Australia (Text Publishing Co.)
Italy (Longanesi)
Sweden (Albert Bonniers)
Norway (Gyldendal)
Holland (Prometheus)
Greece (Patakis)
Finland (Tammi)
French language (Buchet
Chastel)
Catalonia (Proa)
Russia (NLO)
Lithuania(Strofa)
Slovenia (Cankarjeva
Založba)
Israel (Yediot)
Slovakia (Luč)
Czech Republic (Paseka)
Turkey (Dogan Kitap)
Portugal (Livraria
Civilização Editora)
Spain (Tusquets Editores)
About:
Godot and His Shadow is an
autobiographical tale of
the magic of literature and
the author’s fascination
with Samuel Beckett, one
of the twentieth century’s
most enigmatic writers. For
Libera, the poetic oeuvre
of the “master of sadness
and loneliness” achieves
the dimension of prophetic
speech with the power to
transform people and force
them to know themselves.
It is the story of an epiphany
and the journey following in
the footsteps of the man to
whom the epiphany is owed.
His eponymous Madame was
a fictitious character; Beckett
is real. In this book again
the narrator, like a detective,
follows the leads to the
culmination: from Warsaw
via New York and London
to Paris, where an unusual
encounter takes place. This
time, however, a different
thing is at stake. Not love, but
the answer to the question of
the meaning of life.
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
Maria Nurowska
About the author:
Maria Nurowska was born in 1944 in the
village of Okółek in Suwalskie province;
she graduated from Warsaw University in
Polish and Slavic philology; she made her
debut in 1974 in Literatura monthly.
Undoubtedly, part of the charm of Maria
Nurowska’s books origins in the fascinating
biography of the author: a granddaughter
of an aristocrat, the owner of a palace
in Homl, a daughter of a legionary and
a Polish resistance soldier – later a zealous
communist, definitely an amazing woman.
The heroines of Nurowska’s books are truly
exceptional women, full of passion and love,
by far surpassing their partners entangled
in politics, ideology, and broken by history’s
paradoxes.
Nurowska is a representative of the so
called women’s writing. She is at present
one of the most popular authors in
Poland. She often uses the convention
of melodrama (for example in the novels
SPANISH EYES, LOVE LETTERS, MAIDENS
AND WIDOWS) to create a psychological
portrait of the character or to show her
conflict with the outside world. In the
latter instance, she sets the narration in
a certain historic period (World War Two)
or in the present times.
Her writing is based first of all on the
poetics of the narration romance and
psychological novel, but she also uses
elements of novel of manners and sociopolitical novel. Her writing method is to
consciously use various aspects of kitsch
and emotions provoked by it; she confronts
stereotypes with the unique, trivia with
the rare, she triggers easy emotions and
surprisingly deep reflections; the constructs
her characters with great skill, she
develops the plot lightly, balancing on the
verge of consciously chosen exaggeration
and naivety, she proves how grotesque can
be the fate of a woman who is deeply and
stubbornly in love.
Maria Nurowska
The Door to Hell
Maria Nurowska’s boldest novel yet
Daria loved her husband.
And she killed him.
Out of love.
Edward was considerably
older than her, the editorin-chief of a literary
journal. In her he saw
a talented writer and
a fascinating woman.
However, nobody knew
what their relationship
was really like – a love
which had become a toxic
and dangerous game.
Sentenced to twelve years
for a crime of passion, Daria
has ended up in prison. In
a hell which has turned
out to be purgatory for her.
Thanks to another woman,
she has found the path to
her inner self…
FICTION
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
23
I gathered the material for this novel over a number of
years at a women’s prison in Krzywaniec, where most
of the inmates are women who have murdered their
husbands. The prototype for one of my main characters,
Agata, was a particular prisoner with whom I had many long
conversations there. Of course, the prison service warned
me that she was an extremely dangerous and unpredictable
person. I came away with some fantastic material, but it was
a long time before I understood those women. This novel
carries strength, because I have it within me too.
Maria Nurowska
Maria Nurowska
Your Name
RIGHTS SOLD:
Germany (dtv)
Slovakia (Anapress)
About:
The quiet life of Elisabeth
Connery, a thirty-something
art historian, which was
filled with her work at
a New York college and
meetings with friends,
suddenly changes, when her
husband Jeff disappears
without a trace during
a solitary research trip to
Ukraine. Elisabeth decided
to go search for him. Lviv,
which she considered exotic
and scary, turns out to
be a city impressing with
tradition, but at the same
time destroyed by years of
communism, anarchy and
arrogance of the authorities.
Thanks to Andrew Sanicki,
a Ukrainian lawyer she
meets on the way, the
heroine manages to reach
an associate of Georgij
Gongadze, an opposition
journalists killed by
Ukrainian security service.
Elisabeth suspects that the
same could have happened
to Jeff, who worked closely
with Gongadze. But she does
not lose hope – she decides
to undertake a dangerous
journey to the Chernobyl
zone, and then to Chechen
Republic. She meets Oksana
Krywenko, an oppositionist
kept in jail and accused of
kidnapping Jeff Connery,
and – as it turns out –
a mother of his several years
old son Alek. The fates of
the two women are suddenly
24
connected, and the journey
to wild Caucasus turns out
not to be the most risky of
Elisabeth’s undertakings.
Your Name, the first novel
In Nurowska’s „Ukrainian
trilogy”, continued in Return
to Lvov, is a story of courage
and sacrifice, helplessness
in the face of evil and love
which sometimes can be
difficult to accept. Distinctive
characters, references
to the most important
contemporary events make
Your Name a moving story
that readers will remember
for a long time. The final
volume of the trilogy is the
novel Two Loves.
FICTION
Maria Nurowska
Maidens and Widows, vol.1-3
About:
RIGHTS SOLD:
Lithuania (Mintis)
The new, three-volume
edition of the famous
saga by Maria Nurowska,
which at the beginning of
1990’s was adapted both
for cinema and television,
covers over a hundred
years of Polish history.
The fates of six women
are interwoven with the
fate of the country. From
the defeat of the January
Uprising, captivity and
emigration, through
Second Polish Republic,
German occupation,
communism, to Solidarity
movement, martial law and
contemporary times – we
accompany Nurowska’s
heroines, extraordinary
women with strong
characters, dramatic
biographies, united by their
love to the family home in
Lechice.
spends the time of the
conflict abroad. The both
manage to survive the war,
but as will be proved by
later fate of Karolina, the
long awaited liberation
will not mean the same for
everyone.
Maria Nurowska
Return to Lvov
About:
Return to Lvov – the second
volume in the literary cycle
of Maria Nurowska begun in
Your Name – is a continuation
of the story of Elisabeth,
Andrew and Oksana’s son
Alek, whom Elisabeth takes
to the States. Overcoming
the boy’s mistrust, caused
by his feeling of being lost
In a foreign environment,
is a huge challenge for
Elisabeth. But there are even
bigger challenges awaiting
her: motherhood she did
not want, which will change
her and Andrew’s life and
another journey to Ukraine,
where the political situation
becomes even more tense.
What will be the course of
their life torn between two
continents? The mystery
of the disappearance of
Jeff Connery, Elisabeth’s
husband, is still unsolved – is
there still a change to find
him?
Maria Nurowska’s novel,
with the background of the
recent dramatic events
in Ukraine, is a story of
passion and courage,
perversity of fate which puts
us constantly to the test,
and also of faithfulness –
both to ideas and emotions.
RIGHTS SOLD:
Your Name and Return to Lvov are two parts of „Ukrainian
Germany (dtv)
trilogy,” in which complicated fates of the characters
intertwine with contemporary history of America and
Ukraine, on the one side – the World Trade Centre tragedy and a loss of faith in one’s own
country, and on the other side – fight for freedom and independence, against anarchy and
foreign power. Love and betrayal, egoism and sacrifice, personal dramas and political
conflicts – these novels of the one of the most popular Polish writers are moving stories,
which even though are deeply rooted in the present, touch on the most universal human
problems. The final volume of the trilogy is the novel Two Loves.
25
FICTION
Maria Nurowska
The Lover
About:
Poland, 1982. A wellknown writer asks
a young journalist who
fell into disfavour to
collect documentation on
countess Krystyna Skarbek,
an aristocrat of Jewish
origins. For the journalist,
at the beginning her task
is just a job, but soon the
investigation draws her
in, and the image of the
woman emerging from it
begins to fascinate her. The
story she learns is truly
exceptional. A clandestine
agent of the Polish
underground army, and
later of the British secret
service, beautiful Krystyna,
who during war used the
pseudonym Christine
Granville, influences
everyone who encounter
her. Collecting lovers and
heroic deeds, she shows
now caution – there is a thin
boundary between bliss
and death in her life. Maria
Nurowska build a colourful
and multi-layered story
around the historic figure of
Krystyna Skarbek. A story of
a woman fighting cruel fate,
full of contradictions, and
never truly understood.
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
Maria Nurowska
Russian Lover
About:
RIGHTS SOLD:
Germany (dtv)
Czech Rep. (Motto)
Russia (Ripol)
A love story of a fifty years
old Polish woman and
a younger Russian man who
is on a scholarship in Paris.
The heroine travels there
to give lectures on Polish
literature and experiences
her first, big and much too
late romance. Julia is forced
to reconsider the choices
she made in life. She fights
against her feelings and
her body, but she loses that
fight. In her novel, Maria
Nurowska plays with the
stereotypes of the Russian,
the Polish, the fifty years
old women and, finally, the
stereotype of romance itself.
When I am being asked
what this novel is about,
I answer: a triangle. He, she,
and her body. Julia plays
with her body, neglected
for years, which suddenly
against her will begins to
demand attention. Her
26
rebellion is hopeless. She
has to capitulate, because
one cannot live against
biology. Love to a man and
motherhood are the pillars
of women’s fate. If one
misses them – life loses
stability. Therefore love to
a much younger Man. She –
Polish, professor, a visitor
to Sorbonne. He – Russian
historian on a scholarship to
Paris.
Maria Nurowska
FICTION
Maria Nurowska
German Dance
About:
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
The street of Munich on the New Year’s Eve of 2000.
Hidden in the crowd welcoming the new millennium is
Eliza von Saarow, one of the heroines of the novel, who
reminiscences about her youth age spent in Pomerania.
She left there the ruins of a family residence, tombs of
her ancestors and the love of her life. The second heroine,
missionary Marianna von Saarow, dies of AIDS In Africa.
The two women have been separated from each other
since the time of war and exile by a family secret. Will they
find courage to face it as their lives come to an end?
Maria Nurowska
Two Loves
About:
The third volume in the
saga started with Your
Name and Return to Lvov
is a continuation of the
story of Elizabeth Connery,
Andrew Sanicki, their
daughter, and Oksana’s
son Alek. Elizabeth cannot
escape her past. She is
happily in love, but the
thought of her husband’s
mysterious disappearance
during a research trip to
Ukraine still haunts her.
She travels to Donieck to
try to solve the mystery
from a few years back.
Soon, she will be a missing
person herself, when no
one can determine her
location. The third volume
in the Ukrainian trilogy is
full of references to recent
political events in Ukraine,
related to dramatic fates of
the characters. Surprisingly
relevant, and at the same
time universal story of
people constantly put to
tests and fighting fate’s
perversity.
RIGHTS SOLD:
Germany (dtv)
FICTION
Maria Nurowska
To Feed the Wolves
she meets Olgierd and
Marcin. Difficulties of life
Maria Nurowska – one of the in primitive conditions
most popular Polish writers, bring the three scientists,
who at the beginning were
known and appreciated
distrustful, together as
in many countries around
friends, and with time two
the world. Publication of
of them will be united by
each of her novels is an
something more. The first
event. But her latest novel
night observation of wolves
is truly unique. It is an
is a start of great fascination
amazing story of friendship
for Katarzyna, and next
between people and
even closer encounters with
wolves. Kasia, a graduate
the pack create an almost
of SGGW in Warsaw, comes
mystical bond between
to Bieszczady mountains
them. This bond makes all
to collect data for her
city disappointments seem
PhD thesis on wolves.
irrelevant.
At the research station
About:
Kasia engages in defence
of the animals, and she
brings Polish sheepdogs to
a village nearby, so they can
drive the predators away
and keep them away from
human homes. Finally, she
crosses paths with a local
poacher, which puts her
own life in danger.
This book has been „writing
itself” in my head since,
as a fourteen-year-old
girl I got off at Karwica
Mazurska station in the Piski
forest. My father had just
been appointed at forest
administration in Karwica,
I was supposed to had been
picked up from the train,
but no one was waiting for
me. I did not know that the
village is several kilometres
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
away. It was an autumn
afternoon and as I started
to walk, not really knowing
if it was a good direction,
darkness fell. Suddenly I saw
several dark silhouettes
crossing the road. I froze,
but I had to move forward.
For the rest of the way home
I had a feeling there are fiery
eyes of the wolves on both
sides of the road, that the
wolves are guiding me. http://www.znak-rights.com
Maria Nurowska
Requiem for a Wolf
About:
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
Young director Joanna
travels to Bieszczady
to meet her idol, an
exceptional filmmaker who
comes back to Poland after
forty years to build a house
in Bieszczady. It turns out
there was a tragic accident
in the area recently –
a young scientist Katarzyna,
collecting materials for her
PhD thesis on wolves, died
from a poacher’s bullet. The
villagers still remember
Kasia, and they discover
similarities between Joanna
and her. The heroine is
intrigued and begins to
search for information about
the girl, contacts her school,
rents the cabin in which
Kasia lived. She starts to live
Kasia’s life and although she
knows nothing about wolves,
she decides to find and
photograph them.
In the meantime, the
director, who at the
beginning was reluctant
about Joanna, starts to
show interest in her. The
story becomes even more
complicated when Olgierd
appears in the village,
determined to guard the
wolves and her memories of
Katarzyna.
An excellent novel about
fascination with somebody
else’s life, dilemma
and passion. About the
mysterious word of wild
animals which becomes an
obsession.
Follow-up to the famous novel To Feed the Wolves published in 2010.
28
FICTION
Maria Nurowska
The Moon over Zakopane
About:
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
How did it all start? Why did
I become a writer? When
readers ask me about it,
I think that my life was
always guided by chance, so
I became a writer by chance.
The autobiographical
novel of Maria Nurowska
is not only a record of
creative development and
the stories behind novels
of one of the most widely
read and translated Polish
writers. The Moon Over
Zakopane is, among others,
a story of homes: from
the lost paradise of her
father’s forester’s lodge,
through flats which barely
had room for a typewriter,
to adventures related to
the house of her dreams in
Tatra mountains. In a world
where fame is changeable,
men – volatile, and reality,
no matter if communistic
or early capitalistic, is full
of comical and often cruel
paradoxes, what becomes
the most important (apart
from love) is one’s own
place in the world.
Literary autobiography
of Maria Nurowska will
stay with readersa for
a long time – full of vivid
anecdotes and sharp, often
ironic observations.
Maria Nurowska
Love Letters
About:
How many identities can
one have? Does hiding the
truth and leading a double
life contradict true love?
The Fate of Nurowska’s
character is very
complicated. Teenage Jew
a Elżbieta Elsner, in order to
save her father and herself
from starvation in the
ghetto, decides to become
a prostitute. One of her
clients, a high-ranking SS
man gets her a Kennkarte
and organizes her escape to
the Aryan side. The heroine,
under the name of Krystyna
Chylińska, accidentally
ends up in the house
of doctor Korzecki. The
Jewish girl and the Polish
doctor, recipient of much
later unsent letters, fall in
love – a love that will last
for decades. New family,
relationship with a beloved
FICTION
man, work as a translator –
one could think it all
grants happiness. But the
war trauma is still vivid.
Especially when suddenly
the other one appears – like
a ghostly shadow from the
ghetto.
RIGHTS SOLD:
Germany (Fischer Verlag)
Russia (Ripol)
Turkey (Bizim)
29
Maria Nurowska
Tango for Three
About:
Ola is the second wife of Zygmunt, her acting class
teacher. She feels bad about his ex-wife Elżbieta, and she
decides to help her. She comes up with an intrigue, the
goal of which is to make them all act in Bulgakov’s play
on Moliere and his two life partners – a younger and an
older woman. Ola and Elżbieta gradually become friends,
but it is a toxic relationship. They begin to act not only on
the stage, but also in real life. Ola becomes a victim of
her own trick – she gets lost. Tango for Three is a story
about a difficult love, a feeling that on the one hand leads
to catastrophe, but on the other – to a certain liberation.
Only the discovery that we all act subsequent roles in the
theatre of lives makes Ola fight for herself. Tango for three
is a story told through emotions.
RIGHTS SOLD:
Germany (Fischer)
Russia (Ripol)
Maria Nurowska
The Case of Nina S.
About:
RIGHTS SOLD:
Russia (Ripol)
Legal adviser Jerzy Baran
was shot In his Warsaw
apartment. The investigation
is led by commissioner
Zawadka, an experienced
policeman, still looking for
professional fulfilment –
a task that would change
his life. His instinct tells him
that Jerzy B. murder might
be that case. Writer Nina
S, an ex-lover of the victim,
pleads guilty of the murder,
but the commissioner does
not believe her version of the
story. To uncover the truth,
he reads the writer’s journal
and testimonies of her twin
daughters. He learns stories
of three women. Their
desires, fears and secrets
hidden for years. He enters
the world where love is
inseparable from meanness,
and one has to fight
constantly for emotion and
dignity. It is a world, where
every moment of inattention
has a high price.
Maria Nurowska
masterfully uses the genre
of detective novel to create
30
a praise of love between
mother and daughters,
between one sister and
another. She juxtaposes evil
world of men and tender
and gentle world of women.
She juxtaposes a toxic
emotion with the sensation
it brings. The heroes of
The case of Nina S. are
tragic characters, crushed
by history and dangerous
emotions.
FICTION
Maria Nurowska
Spanish Eyes
About:
RIGHTS SOLD:
Germany (Fischer)
We meet Anna and her
daughter at a psychologist’s
office, as they try to solve
Ewa’s problem, bulimia. If
the girl is to truly recover,
she needs therapy. The
toxic love between her and
her mother must turn into
an emotion that will not
hurt them. Is it possible
for the daughter to repeat
her mother’s fate? To
what extent traumas from
adolescence determine or
lives and the lives of our
loved ones? Spanish Eyes
is a story of a difficult love,
adolescence, being lost,
acceptance and suffering.
Nurtowska’s heroine is
a victim of history, leaving
an indelible mark on her
mind and later life.
There is an amazing story
related to writing Spanish
Eyes. by the end of summer
of 1988 I met a woman in the
park. Even though she was
no longer young, she had one
of the most beautiful faces
I had ever seen. I started
talking to her. And suddenly,
surprising us both, she
started telling me her story.
I turned out later I was her
first and only listener since
she came back from exile in
Siberia in 1953. She was sent
there when she was fifteen
as a punishment for her
participation in the Warsaw
Uprising. She did not come
back from the Soviet Union
alone – she brought back her
daughter, a fruit of rape in
the labour camp.
Maria Nurowska
Maria Nurowska
Anna’s Choice
About:
Anna’s Choice by Maria
Nurowska, a new edition of
her novel Postscript from
1989 is a deeply moving
story told with great
empathy. Anna Łazarska,
a forty-year-old violinist,
finds her father’s diary
and discovers she is not
the person she thought
she was. Her real name is
Miriam Zarg, and she was
saved from the Warsaw
ghetto as an infant. She is
in shock. She loses trust in
her father and abandons
him, even though he is
seriously ill and needs
her care. Anna contacts
her relatives, but cannot
accept her new role. She
painstakingly tries to put
together her two lives. We
learn her story from the
journalist Hans Benek.
Their meeting completes
the picture created by Maria
Nurowska. Anna’s personal
tragedy illustrates the fates
of three nations entangled
in World War Two: Jews,
Poles, and Germans.
FICTION
as he was called by the
Americans, liked to work at
night. It was quiet then in
My Friend the Traitor
general staff, and he could
see farther and better in the
dark. Sometimes he felt the
About:
true burden of responsibility,
could only be published after like when he realized that if
“If you want to describe me
the Russian Army invades
his death.
as a traitor, go ahead, and if
the West, Poland will be the
Maria Nurowska listens
you want to agree with the
carefully, asks questions and first destination of NATO’s
most dramatic decision I’ve
nuclear attack. That is why
ever made, I’ll be happy” said observes this short man,
in 1972 he made an attempt
whose life has been more
Ryszard Kukliński during
to contact representatives
a meeting in 1999. There was fascinating than literary
of the American army
fiction. “Freedom fighter,”
only one condition: the book
and started cooperation
Today, Kukliński is a monument. Some put flowers in front
with them several months
of it, others turn their heads away. In a few years, his story
later. To protect his wife,
will be taught at schools. But not many wonder who Ryszard
he transformed into
Kukliński really was. Not whether he was a traitor or a hero,
a heartbreaker. He was
but who he was as a man. This is what Maria Nurowska’s
deeply aware that women
book is about.
had always been the best
alibis.
Newsweek
Maria Nurowska
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
31
But before he started this
dangerous game, crucial
for the fate of his nation, he
was an ordinary boy, who
joined officers’ school, got
an apartment in Wrocław
so big that he could rollerstake in it, and fell in love
with a skinny girl in a blue
dress, who played out of
tune piano.
Kukliński tells also about
his love for sailing, favourite
quince vodka, dramatic
escape from Poland,
unusual war with mice, and
the loss of two sons…
RIGHTS SOLD:
Denmark
(Forlaget Ellekaer)
Non32
-Fiction
Andrzej Franaszek
The event of the year of Czesław Miłosz!
An exceptional life, an exceptional biography.
About the author:
Andrzej Franaszek (1971) – literary critic, editor in the
culture section of Tygodnik Powszechny, graduate of Polish
philology at the Jagiellonian University. He concentrates
on the life and work of contemporary Polish writers.
He published, among others, „Ciemne źródło. Esej
o cierpieniu w twórczości Zbigniewa Herberta” (nominated
to Nike literary prize in 1999, second edition: Znak 2008),
„Przepustka z piekła. 44 szkice o literaturze i przygodach
duszy” (Znak 2010) and first and foremost the monumental
biography of Czesław Miłosz.
RIGHTS SOLD:
Lithuania (Apostrofa)
Belarus (Lohvinau)
33
NON-FICTION
About:
Miłosz. A biography by
Andrzej Franaszek is not
only a colourful portrait of
one of the greatest authors
of the 20th century, but also
a historical account showing
the brutal paroxysms of
that time: wars, revolutions,
totalitarianisms, uprisings,
independence movements.
The poet, who lived for
almost hundred years,
experienced all those
events personally – as well
as the fate of an exile, so
characteristic of that time –
and he examined them
thoroughly in his works,
which surprise the reader
with their range of artistic
diversity.
Andrzej Franaszek was
collecting materials for
the biography for almost
ten years – in Poland and
Lithuania, in France and
the United States. He
spoke with everyone who
could contribute important
information about Miłosz,
he searched through
the archives at Beinecke
Library and MaisonsLaffitte, he investigated
the poet’s extensive
correspondence. What is
more, he used his material
in an amazing manner – he
does not overwhelm the
reader with excess data, but
rather he creates a portrait
of the hero of his story
in an effortless style. He
does not avoid painful and
difficult subjects, delicate
personal matters, dramatic
decisions and choices. He
presents them tactfully
and with empathy, he helps
the reader to learn the
secrets of a fascinating life
of a great man. Reading
the work of Andrzej
Franaszek, we gain hope
that we may understand the
phenomenon of Milosz’s
talent, the intricacies of his
personality – that we may
understand what shaped
his mind, imagination and
poetic sensitivity.
Wojciech Jagielski
Scorching the Grass
A masterly account that leaves a lasting impression
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
Reportage writer Wojciech
Jagielski’s flair for
observation and superb
literary skills change the
here and now of the citizens
of a South African town into
a universal story about the
disappointment that every
great social revolution
brings in its wake.
From the white farmer’s
mutilated face it is
impossible to recognize
Eugene Terre’Blanche,
a man who had inspired
panic-stricken terror. His
black killers do not try to
run away. They call the
police themselves. They
were only meting out
justice.
appointed general is not
bound by government
agreements signed by
traitors. In Ventersdorp
everything has to remain
in accordance with God’s
plan. White Boers separate,
blacks separate, and
descendants of the British
separate.
The demented system of
racial segregation is at
an end. The whites have
handed over power to the
black majority. But not in
Eugene Terre’Blanche’s
home town. The self-
Jagielski writes about the strangest places on earth. There
are a lot of things he can’t understand, which is why he
prefers Kashmir to Washington, and also why he gives
priority to Abkhaz guerrillas over Parisian waiters. Yet very
many people know that he writes the best foreign reports in
the entire Polish press.
Bartosz Węglarczyk, Gazeta Wyborcza
34
NON-FICTION
About the author:
Wojciech Jagielski (born
1960) is a journalist and
foreign correspondent who
graduated in journalism
from Warsaw University.
He started working in the
1980s as a reporter for the
Polish Press Agency (PAP),
and from 1991 until 2012 he
worked for Poland’s leading
daily newspaper, Gazeta
Wyborcza. In April this year
he returned to the PAP, with
plans to focus on analysis
and long-form reportage
from international conflict
zones. He specializes in
Africa, Central Asia and
the Caucasus. Scorching
the Grass is his fifth book,
following A Good Place to Die
(1994, about the Caucasus),
Praying for Rain (2002, about
Afghanistan, nominated
for the Nike Award and
the Józef Tischner Prize),
Towers of Stone (2004, about
Chechnya), and The Night
Wanderers (2009, about
Uganda and the Lord’s
Resistance Army). He has
won a number of major
prizes including: the Polish
Journalists Association
award (1995, the “Polish
Pulitzer”), the Dariusz
Fikus Award (2002) and the
PAP’s Gold Badge of Merit
(2005). Although he is often
compared with Ryszard
Kapuściński, from the very
start he has blazed his own
literary trail.
Travels with Ryszard Kapuściński
Thirteen Translators Tell Their Stories
About the author:
This book was supposed
to be a surprise gift for
Ryszard Kapuściński.
Unfortunately, we did not
complete it in time to
show him.
Travels with Ryszard
Kapuściński are very
personal stories told by
his translators: Astrit
Beqiraj from Tirana,
Anders Bodegård from
Stockholm, William
Brand from the United
States (who now lives
in Poland), Klara
Główczewska from New
York, Tapani Kärkkäinen
from Helsinki, Blagovesta
Lingorska from Sophia,
Mihai Mitu from Bucharest,
Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand from Cracow, Agata
Orzeszek from Barcelona,
Véronique Patte from
Paris, Martin Pollack from
Vienna, Dušan Provaznik
from Prague, and Vera
Veridiani from Florence.
For these thirteen
individuals Kapuściński
was not only their master,
but also a person very dear
to them.
RIGHTS SOLD:
Spain (Serrei de
Publicacions
de la UAB)
35
NON-FICTION
Travels with Ryszard Kapuściński,
part 2.
The Tales of Fourteen Translators
About:
Part two of Travels with
contains very personal
accounts of Kapuściński
by his translators. Among
those who share their
memories of the famous
reporter who died two
years ago are Ljubica Rosić
and Biserka Rajčić from
Belgrade, the Transatlantyk
Prize winner Ksenia
Starosielska from Moscow,
the director of the Krakow
office of the Cervantes
Institute Abel Murcia
Soriano, the Canadian
of Polish descent Diana
Kuprel, Tomasz Barciński
from Rio de Janeiro and
the Spanish-Polish couple
Anna Rubio and Jerzy
Sławomirski who translate
Kapuściński’s works into
Catalan. What emerges
from these memories is
the portrait of not only
an outstanding writer,
intellectual and mentor, but
also a dear friend, a man
of uncommon warmth and
kindness.
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
A Reporter: Self-portrait
About:
ALL RIGHTS:
Liepman AG Literary
Agency, Zürich
RIGHTS SOLD:
Italy (Feltrinelli)
France (Plon)
Grece (Metainimio)
Ukraine (ECEM Media)
Sweden (Bonniers)
This book was born out of
the editor’s keen interest
in Ryszard Kapuściński’s
writing and a desire to
acquaint his readers with
a considerable number of
interviews published in both
Polish and foreign press,
which reveal more than his
books do. Most importantly,
what kind of person was
Kapuściński? And how
did he happen to turn his
profession into a mission
and a true passion.
presented Krystyna
Strączek with over 1100
pages of text encompassing
over a hundred interviews
with Polish and foreign
journalists. As she read
through it, she realised
that it was a priceless
gem, since it included
not only Kapuściński’s
views upon the work of
a correspondent, but also
an extraordinary tale
about himself, his passion
for travelling, his unique
method of writing, the
necessity to risk one’s
life for a good purpose.
The interviews contain
Kapuściński’s account of
the loneliness and fear
experienced by foreign
correspondents, his
views on the hardships
of writing and the burden
of fame. Out of all the
material emerged a book
of quotes divided into five
chapters devoted, among
others, to Kapuściński’s
travels, his writing process
and the idiosyncrasies of
contemporary media. Highly
readable as a concise
autobiography and a kind
of guide for aspiring
journalists, it may serve
either as an introduction
to Kapuściński’s writing
or a most valuable new
perspective on his work.
NON-FICTION
The Rapid Current of History.
Writings on the 20th and 21st Centuries
About:
ALL RIGHTS:
Liepman AG Literary
Agency, Zürich
RIGHTS SOLD:
Italy (Feltrinelli)
A collection of Ryszard
Kapuściński’s ruminations
about globalization,
history, and specific
geographical regions:
Africa, Latin America,
Europe and Russia. The
book’s selection of texts
and arrangement of the
chapters was approved
by Ryszard Kapuściński
himself. One can treat
this text as a supplement
to his first-rate works of
reportage, or as a point
of departure for weighing
in on the richness of our
multifaceted modern
world.
These texts show Ryszard
Kapuściński as not only
a reporter and writer, they
demonstrate his bewildering
professional knowledge (after
all, he was educated as
a historian) about the fate
and culture of regions
he visited. But it is not
a mere show of erudition.
Kapuściński calls on facts
in oder to interpret them,
to show historical and
cultural parallels, and to
prognosticate.
(from Krystyna Strączek’s
introduction)
This book is illustrated with
Kapuściński’s very own
previously unpublished
pictures.
Beata Nowacka,
Zygmunt Ziątek
Ryszard Kapuściński. A Writer’s Biography
Authored by the literary
scholars Beata Nowacka and
Zygmunt Ziątek, researchers
of Kapuściński’s work
of many years’ standing,
the book is a pioneering
presentation of the great
reporter’s oeuvre in its
entirety.
The creative biography of one
of the 20th century’s preeminent reporters describes
the development and
transformations of his writing,
and also tells the life story of
the writer who often made
himself the protagonist of his
texts. Alongside the analyses
of Kapuściński’s reportage,
the authors provide the
history behind every piece,
as well as their reception in
Poland and abroad.
Full of hereto unknown
facts and bits of information
freshly unearthed from the
archives, this book is an
indispensable and unrivalled
guide for all interested in
Ryszard Kapuściński’s life
and work.
The authors on their book:
“Our investigation of Ryszard
Kapuściński’s work is not
primarily motivated by
interpretive accuracy. What
we aimed to capture was
the dynamics of his spiritual
growth, his attempt at the
reconstruction of his own
biography in synch with the
historical changes, his search
for the compatibility of the
new face of the world with
his own identity. In one of our
last tape-recorded interviews
with him, the writer said:
‘The reporter changes with
the world. The trajectory of
history is identical with that of
a reporter’s life.’”
Review excerpts:
The impressive-looking
volume Ryszard Kapuściński.
A Writer’s Biography was
many years in the making. The
authors present the material
collected in many unpublished
interviews with Kapuściński.
They relate the circumstances
of the creation of his most
important works, his travels
near and far, his experience of
war and his native Pińsk.
abroad, which changed the
world considerably in the last
few decades … I learned some
small details of Ryszard’s life
which I hadn’t known before:
for example, the fact that
as a twelve-year-old he was
an altar boy… and where? In
general Berling’s army! I was
friends with Ryszard for many
years and he never told me
that.
– Wojciech Giełżyński,
Nowe Książki
RIGHTS SOLD:
Spain (Alamut)
Italy (FEUU)
... in short: a guide to his
writing.
– Justyna Sobolewska,
Polityka
37
The most comprehensive and
the most detailed of Ryszard
Kapuściński’s biographies to
– Bartosz Marzec, date.
– Wprost
Rzeczpospolita
The authors did an impressive
work, getting to know more
about Ryszard, his adventures
and his successes than even
he himself or his wife Alicja
remembered. Every page
of the book is full of facts;
the evaluation of his works
is almost always right, as
is the evaluation of him as
a person, of his beautiful and
rich life. What’s more, the
book is a panorama of the
whole spectrum of political
events both in Poland and
... a splendid biography
showing the complicated life
story of a writer, a reporter,
a man.
– Nowa Trybuna Opolska
The scope of the work and its
interpretive accuracy are truly
impressive, as is the utterly
satisfied ambition to “capture
the dynamics of Kapuściński’s
spiritual growth.”
– Przegląd Polski
Andrzej Szczeklik
Immortality.
The Promethean dream of medicine.
About:
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
38
In his latest, posthumously
edited book Immortality,
professor Szczeklik speaks
of the great Promethean
dream of medicine –
the human desire for
immortality.
During his life, professor
Szczeklik was not only the
observer and witness of the
progress that took place
in medicine. He was a part
of it himself. His style was
simple in such a way as
to make the subject of his
texts understandable to all,
regardless of the difficulty
of the subject.
Be it cloning, human
genome or nuclear
medicine mythology,
antiquity or even Aztec
rituals and Siberian
shamanism on the other.
With each of them Professor
was able to deal in an
interesting and accessible
way.
Immortality remains
a testament of a great
humanist that modern
medicine – not only for
its own sake – should
recognize and try to fulfil.
NON-FICTION
Andrzej Szczeklik
Catharsis
About:
This book aims to draw
attention to issues relating
to illness and pain, which
almost inevitably most of
us will be obliged to face
at some time in our lives.
It discusses the art of
medicine and goes back
to the Platonic notion of
anamnesis; it describes
how “constellations” of
symptoms, reflecting the
position of the patient,
come to form the diagnosis.
It also talks about the gift of
prognosis, which invariably
evokes admiration among
laymen. The author tells us
how helpless a doctor can
be and how he sometimes
has to grope in the dark for
an answer. Time and again
he refers us to music and
poetry, which he justifies by
stating that medicine and
art spring from the same
source, i.e. magic.
The book does not attempt
to boast about progress in
medical science, although
it does mention some
of the most outstanding
achievements in this field.
The author describes
discoveries in which he
participated or which he
witnessed, touches upon
the decline in medical
ethics and tries to visualise the future of medicine
following the “decoding”
of the human genome sequence.
RIGHTS SOLD:
Germany (Herder)
World English Rights
(Chicago UP)
Russia (NLO)
France (Noir sur Blanc)
Spain (Acantilado)
ENGLISH EDITION
AVAILABLE
39
NON-FICTION
I once wrote a line in a poem that went: “I prefer talking to
doctors about something else...” In those days I didn’t know
Doctor Andrzej Szczeklik personally, or his book, as it hadn’t
come into existence yet. Now that I’ve read it, I’m convinced
that Doctor Szczeklik is not only capable of talking “about
something else”, but also of talking “about THIS”, and he can
do it beautifully and fascinatingly.
Wisława Szymborska
Catharsis is a masterful restoration of the old etymological
links that exist between what is hale and healthy and holy.
Andrzej Szczeklik is professor of medicine, but he is also
expert in “the science of the feelings”, which was how William
Wordsworth defined poetry. His book is erudite, imaginative,
intimate, authoritative; at once a reverie about the roots
and responsibilities of doctoring, and a timely reminder that
health care involves caritas before it involves the economy.
Seamus Heaney
Andrzej Szczeklik
Kore
About the author:
RIGHTS SOLD:
Lithuania (Mintis)
Spain (Acantilado)
Professor Andrzej Szczeklik was born in Krakow on
29 July, 1938. He graduated from the Medical Faculty
of the Krakow Academy of Medicine, and continued his
education in the USA and Sweden. Now he is Head of
the 2nd Internal Diseases Department of the Collegium
Medicum at the Jagiellonian University. From 1990 to
1993 he was Rector of the Krakow Academy of Medicine;
and from 1993 to 1996 Deputy Rector of the Jagiellonian
University in charge of the Collegium Medicum. Since 1995
he has held the post of National Consultant for Internal
Diseases.
40
NON-FICTION
About:
This is the second book of Professor Andrzej Szczeklik,
the author of Catharsis. The author describes the greatest
achievements of medicine, both historic and recent. He
ponders over what it means to be a physician, what is the
core of this field of science, and tries to find its soul. The
book is full of erudite references to literature, philosophy,
history and arts.
Kore in Greek means ‘girl’, but also ‘pupil’. The Greeks
used to say that you can see your soul in the shape of
a tiny girl through the pupil of your eye. How could they
have known that the pupil is the only window to the
brain? Where is the soul today? What does medicine tell
us about the soul? Is medicine looking for soul in itself?
Somewhere between life and death, health and illness,
science and art, and finalny – love. Let her lead the way on
our serach for soul. The soul of medicine.
The Black Garden
About the author:
Małgorzata Szejnert is an acclaimed journalist. For several
years she worked for the Gazeta Wyborcza where she
published many reportages and interviews.
RIGHTS SOLD:
Germany (Kulturforum)
NON-FICTION
41
About:
Awarded the Cogito Literary Prize this outstanding book
of reportage shows the history of the Silesia region where
both Polish and German history was shaped. Małgorzata
Szejnert reconstructs the extraordinary history of that
region through the stories of families form a town called
Giszowiec. These individual stories are truly fascinating
and can function as excellent background for novels or
scenarios. Szejnert shows the conflict of identity that
took place on a level as small as the family, as it often
happened that one brother was a Polish patriot while the
other was a German army officer. Szejnert portrays people
who overcame the limitations of history and community.
They fought stereotypes, their own weaknesses and they
often won this battle.
Shortlisted for the Nike Literary Prize in 2008.
Gateway Island
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
42
Małgorzata Szejnert, an outstanding journalist, head of the
reportage department at the Polish biggest daily, Gazeta
Wyborcza, the author of Czarny ogród (Black Garden), the
book honoured with the Polish Public Media Cogito Prize
in 2008, has now turned her attention to Ellis Island. The
tiny scrap of land just off the coast near New York City
has long been called the “gateway to America.” Since late
19th century to the 1950s it was where all immigrants to
the United States from all over the world arrived, in total
nearly twelve million people.
The majority spent just a few hours there. The less
fortunate ones, however, could be detained for over
a year, undergoing tedious procedures. Others still were
simply turned away, because, according to Immigration
Law, entrance could be denied to “idiots, the mentally
ill, the destitute, polygamists, people who could become
a public burden, who suffer from repulsive or dangerous
contagious diseases, who were convicted for crimes or
other disgraceful deeds, or committed acts of immorality,”
as well as to all those who simply could not afford to travel
inland.
Enormously insightful, the author recreates the dramatic
lives of the immigrants, both Polish, Jewish, German,
Irish and Italian; she accompanies them under the decks
of overloaded ships, during lenghty quarantines and all
sorts of medical examinations, and describes their lot
after entering America. Her main focus, however, are the
employees of the Immigration Office: the doctors, nurses,
interpreters and social workers, or even chaperons who
guarded the chastity of young girls. Szejnert tells the
story of the Island up to the present day; today it hosts the
Immigration Museum, with most of the staff descending
from the immigrants who arrived on Ellis Island.
The book is richly illustrated with unique archive
photographs.
Karolina Lanckorońska
About the author:
Professor Karolina
Lanckorońska was the last
member of the famous
Lanckoroński family from
Brzezie. Born in 1898, she
lived through the whole
20th century and witnessed
as well as participated in
many important historical
events. In 1994 she donated
the great Lanckoroński
family collection of
paintings to the Polish
nation. The artistic and
historical value of the
collection is enormous
and the gift is one of
unprecedented generosity.
After World War II, Karolina
Lanckorońska decided to
settle in Rome and devoted
her time to the study of art
history, especially to the
work of her beloved artist
Michelangelo. Her sense of
duty towards Polish culture
induced her to the work
for the Polish Historical
Institute and since 1967 in
the Lanckoroński family
foundation. She died on
25 August, 2002.
43
NON-FICTION
Praise for Those Who Trepass Against Us:
bestem Gewissen unter die
legendären Frauen des 20.
Jahrhunderts einreihen. (...)
Spätestens seit Imre Kertész
in seinem Roman eines
Schicksalslosen eine neue
Sicht auf den Holocaust
zauberte, wurde es klar, dass
The Times unter all den Gräueln ein
Wunder verschüttet lag, das
niemand bislang bemerkte.
Es gibt Literatur und es
Das Wunder des Überlebens.
gibt das Leben. Und dann
In Karolina Lanckorońskas
gibt es den Glücksfall. Ein
Leben, das sich wie Literatur Kriegserinnerungen, die
mit der Einnahme Lwows
liest. So einer ist Karolina
Lanckorońskas Erinnerungen durch die Rote Armee
1939 einsetzen und bis zu
an den Krieg. Die polnische
Lanckorońskas Befreiung
Gräfin, die kürzlich in Rom
aus dem Konzentrationslager
verstarb, kann man mit
This is a humbling and
heartrending story of
courage and tenacity, told
self-effacingly and simply. (...)
A testament to our capacity
for evil and for transcending
it, this is a lesson to us all.
Ravensbrück 1945 reichen, ist
dieses Wunder wieder da. (...)
Albert Camus sagte
einmal, dass ein Mensch
niemals einen anderen
töten dürfe, weil es gegen
die fundamentalste Regel
unserer Existenz verstoße –
der Loyalität der Lebenden
gegenüber dem Tod. Alber
Camus wäre entzückt,
eine so stark ausgeprägte
Loyalität in der Person
Karolina Lanckorońskas zu
sehen.
Der Standard Album
Karolina Lanckorońska
Those Who Trespass Against Us
About:
RIGHTS SOLD:
Austria (Boehlau)
UK (Random House –
Pimlico)
US (Perseus)
Brasil (Tessitura Editore)
Spain (Acantilado)
Egypt (Sphinx Agency)
ENGLISH EDITION
AVAILABLE
44
Born in Buchberg, Austria, in 1898, Countess Karolina
Lanckorońska was an aristocrat and art historian who
taught at the University of Lwów, then part of Poland. When
the Soviets came to occupy Lwów, Lanckorońska became
active in the Polish resistance and moved to Kraków.
She was arrested by the Germans in Kołomyja in 1942,
imprisoned and later sentenced to death; incarcerated
first in Stanisławów, then in Lwów and Berlin before being
placed in the notorious Ravensbrück concentration camp.
As a countess, Lanckorońska was subjected to varying
treatment, suffering near starvation at times only to
receive extra food and medical care at others according
to the fluctuating and often conflicting orders from the
authorities in Berlin. With the intervention of some
influential friends and the honourable actions of one
Nazi, she was saved from death on several occasions.
Thanks to efforts by the Swiss diplomat, scholar and
International Red Cross President Carl J. Burkhardt
(whose correspondence with Heinrich Himmler was found
among Lanckorońska’s personal belongings) she was
finally released in April, 1945.
Throughout her imprisonment, Lanckorońska remained
defiantly resilient, loyal to Poland and committed to her
fellow prisoners, including women used by Nazi doctors
as guinea pigs for shocking medical experiments. Her
magnetic personality and superb story-telling makes this
a powerful narrative and sustains our interest through
harrowing reading. Her ability to view her own horrific
situation with objectivity gives us insight into the motives
and behaviour of the Soviets and the Germans not
simply as oppressors, but as human beings. Hers is an
extraordinary story of courage and will.
Ewa K. Czaczkowska
Biography of Saint Faustina
The first full and and most detailed biography of Saint
Faustina.
It began on 22 February 1931. Sister Faustina, who at
that time had been in the order for six years, had lived
for nearly a year in the convent of the Congregation of
the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Płock. It was the first
Sunday of Lent. It was evening. Faustina had just returned
to her cell. Earlier, she had eaten supper and said her
prayers in the convent chapel. She was preparing for bed.
Suddenly she saw Jesus in her cell.
NON-FICTION
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
45
One hand [was] raised in the gesture of blessing, the other
was touching the garment at the breast. From beneath
the garment, slightly drawn aside at the breast, there
were emanating two large rays, one red, the other pale.
In silence I kept my gaze fixed on the Lord; my soul was
struck with awe, but also with great joy. After a while,
Jesus said to me, Paint an image according to the pattern
you see, with the signature: Jesus, I trust in You. I desire
that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and
[then] throughout the world.
I promise that the soul that will venerate this image
will not perish. I also promise victory over [its] enemies
already here on earth, especially at the hour of death.
I Myself will defend it as My own glory.
(Diary 47-48)
Children’s
46
books
Przemysław Wechterowicz,
Marta Ignerska
Great Dreams
About the authors:
Przemysław Wechterowicz says the following about his
life: “My life would be boring and dull without children’s
books – they add a cheerful glow to everything”. He lives
in Warsaw. This is his first book.
RIGHTS SOLD:
Brazil (Editora Biruta)
France (Global Arts)
Marta Ignerska (b. 1978) is a graduate of the Department
of Graphic Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw
(cum laude, 2005). Her work centers around illustrating,
designing books, graphics, and she works with, among
others, periodicals and publishers (Znak, Wytwórnia),
TVP (Polish National Television), and is the graphic designer
for the publisher of the National Gallery of Art, Zachęta.
47
CHILDREN’S
About:
A very big book about very big dreams. It contains twenty
one illustrations, each presenting a captivating, colourful
and imaginative realization of a sometimes surprising
wish. The Carpet wants to fly to Mars, Fire dreams about
becoming a firefighter, and the Well – about seeing the
ocean. The original and humorous text by Wechterowicz
has become an inspiration for Marta Ignerska’s vibrant
illustrations, full of details and telling a narrative of their
own.
Aleksandra Mizielińska,
Daniel Mizieliński
Who Eats Whom
About the authors:
Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel Mizieliński graduated
from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (Graphic Design
Dept.) in 2007. In 2008 they were awarded the Book of the
Year (IBBY POLAND) for their D.O.M.E.K.
RIGHTS SOLD:
France (Rue du monde)
Spain (Zorro rojo)
Korea (Borim Press)
48
About:
Two very young and very imaginative artists found a very
funny and original way to present how the food chain
works in nature – starting from plants, to predators, and
the animals feeding on dead organisms. The core of the
book are black and white illustrations, which in a subtle
way introduce the educational element and are easily
grasped by children.
CHILDREN’S
Andrzej Maleszka
Magic Tree. Tale 1. The Red Chair
About the author:
Andrzej Maleszka, film director and the author of the
Emmy-awarded script for the TV series for children The
Magic Tree. The series received numerous prestigious
awards including the EMMY AWARD (2007). It was shown
in many countries throughout Europe including Germany,
Sweden, Finland, Denmark and France, as well as
around the world (Japan, Brazil, South Korea). Maleszka
was a director of a feature film The Magic Tree. Tale 1. The
Red Chair, which premiered in autumn 2009.
Maleszka is also the author of the script-based novel
under the same title.
RIGHTS SOLD:
Korea (Book Light)
Serbia (Pro Polis Plus)
49
CHILDREN’S
About:
Excerpt:
It is a well-told, modern
story of three Polish
children who have to
overcome many obstacles in
order to win back to the love
of their parents, engrossed
by earning money. The
world of Kuki, Tosia and
Filip is strongly influenced
by the magical world in the
form of the red chair, made
of the Magic Tree, endowed
with many unusual powers.
Thrilling and fast-paced, the
book is a true page-turner.
Book of the Year 2009 (IBBY
POLAND)
In May 2000 there was a terrible
thunderstorm over the Warta
valley. It lasted three days and
three nights. Petrified animals
hid in the deepest burrows.
Little children kept pillows over
their heads so as not to hear
the deafening roar of thunder.
Electricity was cut off and the
roofs swept off many houses by
the howling wind.
On the third day a lightning
struck an enormous old oak
tree on the hill. The tree split
in half and collapsed.
A tremor went through all the
houses in the valley and the
thunderstorm immediately
stopped. No one knew then
that it was no ordinary oak
tree, but the Magic Tree.
It had great and wonderful
powers.
It was hauled to the sawmill
and sawed into long boards.
A hundred objects were then
made of its wood, and each
retained a little bit of the
Magic Tree’s power. Everyday
things now had power the
like of which the world had
never known before.
The objects were shipped to
shops in various parts of
the world and from that day
on uncanny things began to
happen.
Andrzej Maleszka
Magic Tree. Tale 2. The Mystery of a Bridge
About the author:
RIGHTS SOLD:
Korea (Book Light)
50
CHILDREN’S
About:
Kuki, Vicky and Melania
must find the Forgetting
Bridge. They have to
confront a great spider,
an underground river and
the dangerous three-eyed
Greta. They have to save
Filip, who influenced by
magic fell in love with the
wrong girl. Fortunately
they get help form the best
robot in the world, a geniu
dog and Latte who is a truly
wonderful cat.
Andrzej Maleszka
Magic Tree. Tale 3. The Giant
About the author:
RIGHTS SOLD:
Korea (Book Light)
51
CHILDREN’S
About:
Kuki gets superhuman
strength in order to fight
a mighty giant who takes
seven different forms. The
boy ventures to confront
the monster with the help
of a very intelligent girl
called Gaby, a computer
freak called Blubek and
Budyn who is a talking dog.
The protagonists fight with
animal machines, a steel
bird and a light eater. In
their adventures they go
as far as Asia where they
search for a mysterious
house guarded by a golden
tiger. Fast-paced and bloodcurdling like a computer
game or a thriller the story
is also full of humour,
warmth and wisdom.
Michał Rusinek
Little Chopin
About the author:
RIGHTS SOLD:
Polish Institute Tallin
Polish Institute Jerusalem
Polish Institute Villnus
Michał Rusinek (b.
1972) is a writer and
translator. Teaches
theory of literature at the
Jagiellonian University
and is the secretary of the
Nobel prize-winning poet
Wisława Szymborska. He
translated many children’s
books, including Peter
52
Pan and Wendy by J.M.
Barrie, Paddington Here
and Now by Michael Bond
and The Peanuts. He writes
poetry for both adults and
children, and is the author
of the highly successful Do
It, Swear. A Guidebook to
Children’s Swearwords.
CHILDREN’S
About:
Little Chopin is the first
Polish picture book about
the life of the one of the
greatest composers of all
times. Funny and at the
same time informative, it
explains how “little Freddy”
became a composer and
humorously describes some
of his most famous works.
The text is accompanied
by vibrant colourful
illustrations by Joanna
Rusinek.
Little Chopin has already
been translated into ten
languages as a part of the
cultural program of the
Polish Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, and is one of the
most important publications
prepared for 2010 – the
year of Frederic Chopin
commemorating the 200th
anniversary of his birth.
Joanna Olech
Pompom’s Children
About the author:
Educated as a graphic designer, Joanna Olech has done
numerous illustrations for children’s books, and is the
laureate of several awards. Her literary debut, Dynastia
Miziołków (The Miziolek Dynasty, 1994), is a realistic and
very funny series of tales for ten to twelve year-olds. Her
second literary effort is Gdzie diabeł mówi do usług (Where
the Devil Speaks: At Your Service!, 1997).
CHILDREN’S
RIGHTS AVAILABLE:
World
53
About:
The famous dragon named Pompon who appeared in
the Fis family through the sink drain married a pretty
dragoness and has two children. It is a girl and a boy,
Prudencja and Pulpet. They go to a normal school with the
humans and are very smart students. They make friends
with children and love to go to Halloween parties since
their costumes are perfect. Together with their human
friends they travel to Transylvania to find their relatives.
The journey is full of unusual adventures and funny events.
Joanna Olech
Pompom the Sink Dragon
About the author:
RIGHTS SOLD:
Slovakia (Slovart)
France (Flammarion)
54
Educated as a graphic designer, Joanna Olech has done
numerous illustrations for children’s books, and is the
laureate of several awards. Her literary debut, Dynastia
Miziołków (The Miziolek Dynasty, 1994), is a realistic and
very funny series of tales for ten to twelve year-olds. Her
second literary effort is Gdzie diabeł mówi do usług (Where
the Devil Speaks: At Your Service!, 1997).
CHILDREN’S
About:
Pompom the Sink Dragon is a very relevant history of
a certain dragon. This dragon, named Pompom, appears
in the Fis family home through their sink drain and stays
with them. He grows quickly and matures intellectually.
He becomes a talkative and audacious dragon with
creative, yet sometimes dangerous, ideas which he
puts into practice. He is the caretaker of Mr. and Mrs.
Fis’ children, Malwina and Gniewosz, who once even
took him to activities at an ecology school. This book is
recommended for children from six to ten years of age.
It is humorous in tenor, at the same time it makes great
observations about family life and on top of that it is
a satire of modern life. Joanna Olech is the author of the
illustrations as well.
Notes
Notes

Children`s books

Transcription

Similar documents

Broszura

Historical Background Briefing Conditions of

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes Objectives

Polish American Journal

Polish Film Festival Flyer 8_5x5_5

by Mazurkas Travel - Mazurkas Travel Poland

post report

Polnet Communications, Ltd. is a key player among

Public Debt Clock

Page 9 - Polish American Cultural Center