FrankfurtFrankfurt 2015 FOREIGN RIGHTS:

Magdalena Nowicka Foreign Rights Director

Monika Skowron Foreign Rights Assistant Wydawnictwo Znak/ Znak About us Publishers ul.Kosciuszki 37 30-105 Krakow Poland [email protected] [email protected] M:+ 48 724 800 603 www.znak.com.pl

Established in 1959 Znak Vargas Llosa. We also the most demanding Publishers ranks as one publish such authors as readers. Major topics of the greatest Polish Margaret Atwood, John and leading names, publishing houses. Banville, Zadie Smith, wide-ranging scope and More than just a Ryszard Kapuściński, profound analysis. publishing house, Znak Wiesław Myśliwski, Znak Literanova has provided for more Paweł Huelle, Seamus is focused on 2 than 50 years a forum for Heaney, Ian McEwan and contemporary voices, important debate and Malcolm Gladwell. In which speak of current thus it made a major 2012 Znak has become events and trends. contribution to Polish the Polish publisher Znak Emotikon is home culture. of J.K. Rowling’s The to a number of the best Znak publishes 250 new Casual Vacancy. children’s titles as Le Petit titles per year, in the In order to better Nicolas by R. Goscinny past three years our communicate with and JJ. Sempé and The yearly sales reached our readers, in 2010 House of Secrets by Chris nearly 9 million copies. we established four Columbus and Ned Our titles were imprints: ZNAK, Znak Vizzini. translated into more Horizon, Znak Literanova We see the future in than 15 languages and Znak Emotikon. the light of our basic and sold in more than ZNAK provides a unique ideas and our past and 20 countries. combination of tradition consequently we look Our list includes Nobel and change in producing for ways to further Prize winners like books that deserve strengthen our position Wisława Szymborska, classic status. as publisher of the Czesław Miłosz, Znak Horyzont provides best and the most J.M. Coetzee, Joseph thoroughly rewarding stimulating books Brodsky or Mario material to satisfy in Poland.

http://www.znak.com.pl Contents

9 Wiesław Myśliwski 29 Katarzyna Michalak 39 Joanna Glogaza 50 Wojciech Jagielski The Final Hand Camilla’s Garden, Gosia’s Slow Fashion: How to Scorching the Grass 10 Wiesław Myśliwski Retreat. Julia’s Haven Achieve a Unique Style by 51 Wojciech Jagielski Treatise on Shelling Beans 29 Hanna Samson Buying Less Towers of Stone 11 Wiesław Myśliwski Life After a Man 40 Angela Bajorek 51 Naval Stone Upon Stone 30 Izabela Sowa The Heretic from Survive Belize 11 Wiesław Myśliwski The Return Workers’ Housing Block: 52 Jacek Hugo-Bader Horizon 30 Izabela Sowa A Biography of Janosch A Long Film About Love: 14 Paweł Huelle A Refuge 41 Sylwia Frołow Return to Broad Peak Sing Gardens 31 Dorota Gąsiorowska Dzierżyński: Love and 53 Krzysztof Miller 15 Paweł Huelle Łucja’s Promise Revolution 13 Wars and One. The Who Was David Weiser? 31 Dorota Gąsiorowska 41 Magdalena True Story of a War 15 Paweł Huelle Łucja’s Dream Grzebałkowska Correspondent Cold Sea Tales 33 Maria Wilczek-Krupa The Beksińskis: A Double 54 Ryszard Kapuściński 16 Paweł Huelle Kilar: Genius with Two Portrait A Reporter: Self-portrait The Last Supper Faces 42 Marta Orzeszyna 54 Ryszard Kapuściński 16 Paweł Huelle 34 Beata Chomątowska Antoine Cierplikowski: The Rapid Current of Castorp The Palace: An Intimate King of Stylists, Stylist of History. Writings on the 17 Paweł Huelle Biography Kings 20th and 21st Centuries Mercedes-Benz 34 Władysław Bartoszewski 42 Małgorzata Czyńska 55 Beata Nowacka, 18 Katarzyna Krenz, Righteous Among Nations: The Greatest Beauties: Zygmunt Ziątek Julita Bielak How Poles Helped the the Women in the Ryszard Kapuściński. Hunters’ Moon Jews 1939-1945 Paintings A Writer’s Biography 19 Joanna Bator 35 Władysław Bartoszewski 43 Andrzej Franaszek 56 Małgorzata Szejnert Teardrop Island My Auschwitz Miłosz. A Biography Building Mountains: 20 Dominika Słowik 35 Władysław Bartoszewski 44 Anna Bikont, Stories from the Polesie Atlas Doppelganger Life is Hard But Not Dull: Joanna Szczęsna Region 20 Michał Witkowski From the Memoirs of Dusty Keepsakes: The 57 Małgorzata Szejnert The Teninch a Pole in the Twentieth Biography of Wisława Home of the Turtle. 21 Żanna Słoniowska Century Szymborska Zanzibar The House with 36 Władysław Bartoszewski 45 Ryszard Horowitz 58 Małgorzata Szejnert a Stained-Glass Window The War Years 1939-1945 An Extraordinary Life: Gateway Island 23 Marek Krajewski 36 Władysław Bartoszewski Recollections 58 Małgorzata Szejnert Arena of Rats 1859 Days of Warsaw of a Photocomposer The Black Garden 23 Marek Krajewski 37 Marcin Zaremba 46 Grażyna Jagielska 60 Andrzej Szczeklik Lord of the Numbers Great Terror. Poland She’s Coming Home For Immortality 24 Marek Krajewski 1944-1947, the Popular Good 61 Andrzej Szczeklik In the Abyss of Darkness Reaction to Crisis 47 Grażyna Jagielska Catharsis 25 Marek Krajewski 37 Anna Herbich Love Made of Stone 62 Andrzej Szczeklik The Rivers of Hades Girls from Siberia 47 Grażyna Jagielska Kore 25 Marek Krajewski 38 Aleksandra Angels Eat Three Times 62 Andrzej Szczeklik The Erinyes Zaprutko-Janicka A Day Professor Szczeklik in 26 Marek Krajewski The Occupation Seen 48 Wojciech Jagielski conversation Charon’s Numbers from the Kitchen All Lara’s Wars with Jerzy Illg 26 Maryla Szymiczkowa 38 Anna Wojtacha 49 Wojciech Jagielski 63 Piotr Milewski Mrs Mohr Goes Missing We’ll Love You Or Kill You: The Trumpeter from Japanese Diaries 28 Antoni Libera Tales from Russia Tembisa Madame 39 Jerzy A. Wlazło, 49 Wojciech Jagielski 28 Antoni Libera Zbigniew Pawlak A Good Place to Die Godot and His Shadow Fractured City: Beslan http://www.znak.com.plhttp://www.znak.com.pl 63 Piotr Milewski 67 Andrzej Maleszka The Magic Tree. Tale 5. 73 Joanna Olech The Trans-Siberian: By The Magic Tree The Game Pompom’s Children Railway Across Russia The Magic Tree. Tale 1. The Magic Tree. Tale 6. 73 Joanna Olech and Beyond The Red Chair Dragon Shade Pompom on Holiday 64 Aleksandra Gumowska The Magic Tree. Tale 2. The Magic Tree. Tale 7. Sex, Betel and Magic: The The Mystery of a Bridge World of Giants Sexual Life of Savages The Magic Tree. Tale 3. 71 Wojciech Bonowicz One Hundred Years On The Giant Stories by Nutty Teddy 65 Róża Thun The Magic Tree. Tale 4. 72 Joanna Olech Róża The Duel Pompom the Sink Dragon

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http://www.znak.com.pl Featured titles

FICTION Wiesław Myśliwski The Final Hand

Paweł Huelle Sing Gardens

Katarzyna Krenz and Julita Bielak Hunters’ Moon

Joanna Bator Teardrop Island

Michał Witkowski The Teninch

NON-FICTION Małgorzata Szejnert Building Mountains: Stories from the Polesie Region

Wojciech Jagielski All Lara’s Wars

Grażyna Jagielska She’s Coming Home For Good 5 Władysław Bartoszewski My Auschwitz

Piotr Milewski Japanese Diaries

Beata Chomątowska The Palace: An Intimate Biography

Marta Orzeszyna Antoine Cierplikowski: King of Stylists, Stylist of Kings

Magdalena Grzebałkowska The Beksińskis: A Double Portrait

CHILDREN’S Andrzej Maleszka The Magic Tree. Tale 7.

Joanna Olech Pompom on Holiday

http://www.znak.com.pl Authors list

FICTION Jeanette Winterson Magdalena Grzebałkowska Richard Swinburne Anna Wojtacha Aleksandra Gumowska Xavier Tilliette Margaret Atwood Virginia Woolf Richard Hammond Józef Tischner John Banville Anna Herbich Claude Tresmontant Joanna Bator POETRY Ryszard Horowitz Bernhard Welte Julita Bielak Jacek Hugo-Bader Marcin Bruczkowski Joseph Brodsky Grażyna Jagielska THEOLOGY Candace Bushnell Robert Hass Wojciech Jagielski Albert Camus Seamus Heaney Ryszard Kapuściński Yves Congar Angela Carter Edward Hirsch Ian Kershaw Louis Dupré Marcin Ciszewski Jane Hirshfi eld Martin Lindstrom Paul Evdokimov J.M. Coetzee Yusef Komunyakaa Piotr Milewski Romano Guardini Joseph Conrad Denise Levertov Krzysztof Miller René Laurentin Junot Díaz Czesław Miłosz Marta Orzeszyna Henri de Lubac Fyodor Dostoyevsky Anna Piwkowska Anna Politkovskaya Richard Niebuhr Karin Fossum Tomasz Różycki Mary Roach Pope Benedict XVI Dorota Gąsiorowska Wisława Szymborska Robert Service Pope Francis Joanna Glogaza Karol Wojtyła E. Benjamin Skinner Pope John Paul II Bohumil Hrabal Ko Un Timothy Snyder Joseph Ratzinger Paweł Huelle Adam Zagajewski Andrzej Szczeklik Max Thurian Ismail Kadare Joanna Szczęsna Małgorzata Szejnert Marek Krajewski NON-FICTION CHILDREN’S BOOKS Katarzyna Krenz Piotr Sztompka Jürgen Thorwald Kazimierz Kutz Chris Anderson Róża Thun J.M. Barrie James Joyce Timothy Garton Ash Andrzej Wajda Wojciech Bonowicz Jhumpa Lahiri Stanisław Barańczak Maria Wilczek-Krupa F.C. Boyce Antoni Libera Władysław Bartoszewski Mario Vargas Llosa Aleksandra Zaprutko-Janicka Christianna Brand Neal Bascomb Marcin Zaremba Chris Columbus Richard Lourie Julita Bator Michael Ende Yann Martel Antony Beevor Ted Hughes Ian McEwan Samuel Beckett PHILOSOPHY John Green Eduardo Mendoza Anna Bikont Anthony Horowitz Zbigniew Mentzel Joseph Brodsky Saint Thomas Aquinas Janosch Katarzyna Michalak Beata Chomątowska Saint Augustine Barry Jonsberg Wiesław Myśliwski Józef Czapski Joyce Carol Oates Henri Bergson Andrzej Maleszka Małgorzata Czyńska Martin Buber Paul McCartney J.K. Rowling Norman Davies Etienne Gilson Geraldine McCaughrean Ernesto Sabato Umberto Eco Georg W. F. Hegel Aleksandrza Mizielińska Lydie Salvayre Anne Fadiman Martin Heidegger Daniel Mizieliński Hanna Samson Andrzej Franaszek Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt Michał Heller Joanna Olech Anne Frank Karl Jaspers Philip Pullman Dominika Słowik Andrzej Friszke Zadie Smith Immanuel Kant Sempé & Goscinny Sylwia Frołow Leszek Kołakowski Alex Shearer Izabela Sowa Francis Fukuyama Emmanuel Lévinas Francesca Simon Koji Suzuki Atul Gawande Krzysztof Michalski Dubravka Ugresič Maryla Szymiczkowa Jan Garavaglia Karl Popper Ned Vizzini Tatyana Tolstaya Malcolm Gladwell Dubravka Ugresič Franz Rosenzweig Jan T. Gross Barbara Skarga

http://www.znak.com.pl Fiction7

http://www.znak.com.pl Wojciech Druszcz/REPORTER Wojciech

8

About the author:

Wiesław Myśliwski is the only writer to have twice received the Nike Literary Prize, Poland’s most prestigious literary award. His novels and plays 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. His books have been translated into English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Czech, Slovak, Romanian, Bulgarian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Serbian. Wiesław Myśliwski The Final Hand

Over 56 000 Polish copies sold The long awaited new novel by the master of Polish fi ction.

About : relatives. mankind and human fate, Organising the notebook suspended between chance The Final Hand is the new also becomes an excuse and necessity. Masterfully literary masterpiece we for ruminating on his constructed, this is have been looking forward relationships with women, a novel we want to read to for several years now. his short-lived affairs, and and re-read, to discover The novel’s main fi nally his most signifi cant new dimensions and protagonist wishes emotional experience, his perspectives every time. RIGHTS SOLD: to organise his vast love for Maria. The elemental force of the France (Actes Sud) notebook – a collection The Final Hand encourages story is so enthralling that Holland (Querido) of addresses and visiting us to think, without the reader lets himself be Lithuania (Mintis) cards, because he feels teaching, moralising carried away by it. that this exercise will allow or passing judgment. It him to organise and take shows life as it is, with all It was worth the seven-year stock of his whole life. In his its pluses and minuses. wait for Wiesław Myśliwski’s memory he returns to the It is a philosophical, Th e Final Hand – this book days of his youth, recalling multi-dimensional novel, is hard to put down. his mother, his friends and the theme of which is Rzeczpospolita

FICTION 9

Selected prizes:

• Nike Literary Prize 1997 and 2007 • Gdynia Literary Prize 2007 • 2012 PEN Translation Prize, Stone Upon Stone, the English translation by Bill Johnston of Kamień na Kamieniu • Three Percent’s Best Translated Book Prize, Stone Upon Stone, the English translation by Bill Johnston of Kamień na Kamieniu • American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages Best Literary Translation Into English Prize, Stone Upon Stone, the English translation by Bill Johnston of Kamień na Kamieniu • Priz Jean Monnet de Littérature Européenne, L’ Art d’écosser les haricots, the French translation by Margot Carlier of Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli • The European Literature Prize for the best European novel, Over het doppen van bonen, the Dutch translation by Karol Lesman of Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli – shortlist

National Translation Award 2013: Treatise on Shelling Beans by Bill Johnston, nomination.

The Angelus Central European Literature Award 2013: The Final Hand, nomination.

http://www.znak.com.pl Wiesław Myśliwski Treatise on Shelling Beans

Winner of the Nike Literary Prize 2007.

About: marred by the trauma metaphysical novel. of war, his youth with its Probing into the Mystery, In a monologue to his delusions and lies, and the posing fundamental mysterious visitor, the everyday life in a country existential questions, protagonist of Myśliwski’s on which “the best system tapping the wall of novel sums up his whole in the world” is imposed, darkness, Myśliwski offers life in one day, as he shells the ensuing Wander – and no easy answers or cheap RIGHTS SOLD: beans. The intricately Bildungsjahre, a stint of consolations. He never France (Actes Sud) crafted story with its earning a living abroad, and deceives us that the Mystery Italy (Alberto Gaffi Editore) varying temporal planes fi nally the time of summing can be known; on the Israel (Kinneret Zmora) Lithuania (Mintis) offers an insight into hidden up the bitter knowledge, the contrary, he insists on the USA (Archipelago) senses of human destiny, harvest of a long life. need to ask the questions Holland (Querido) the relation of chance and Treatise on Shelling again and again despite Russia (Limbus) fate, the difference between Beans is not only a huge the acute awareness that Slovakia (Kalligram) the authentic and the sham, epic panorama, but fi rst nothing but darkness lies Czech R. (Havran) or normality and madness. and foremost a great ahead. Serbia (Clio) The great historical Slovenia (Mladinska knjiga fresco encompasses the 80 000 Polish copies sold! Založba) protagonist’s childhood Spain (451 Editores) Croatia (Naklada Ljevak) FICTION

Myśliwski is probably our A phenomenal novel in An unforgettable voice. Myśliwski never takes a only Olympian writer, the a brilliant translation by Th e tone of the narrator is false narrative step, because last depositary of the myth Karol Lesman. highly amusing, human, and on this fl owing narrative of literature regarded as Vrij Nederland perceptive. river of a road, there can verbal magic. Some people Package be no such thing as a false say he is the last writer of Myśliwski is an exceptional step. the nineteenth century. storyteller. Th e Quarterly Conversation Newsweek De Morgen

Treatise on Shelling Beans – the English translation by Bill Johnston. December 2013 ( Archipelago Books).

http://www.znak.com.pl Wiesław Myśliwski Sweeping... Irreverent... With winning candor... Stone Upon Stone Pietruszka chronicles the modernization of rural About : Poland and celebrates the persistence of desire. Myśliwski’s grand epic in the rural tradition – a profound Th e New Yorker and irreverent stream of memory cutting through the rich and varied terrain of one man’s connection to the land, Joyously anchored in the to his family and community, to women, to tradition, to physical world, steepedin God, to death, and to what it means to be alive. Wise and storytelling, a delight from impetuous, plain-spoken and compassionate Szymek, start to fi nish. recalls his youth in their village, his time as a guerrilla Kirkus Reviews soldier, as a wedding offi cial, barber, policeman, lover, drinker, and caretaker for his invalid brother. Filled with Like a more agrarian Beckett, RIGHTS SOLD: interwoven stories and voices, by turns hilarious and a less gothic Faulkner, USA (Archipelago) moving, Szymek’s narrative exudes the profound wisdom a slightly warmer Laxness, Holland (Querido) of one who has suffered, yet who loves life to the very core. Myśliwski masterfully renders Turkey (Aylak Adam in Johnston’s gorgeous Kültür Sanat Yayıncılık) translation. Spain (Malpaso) Bill Johnston was awarded the 2012 PEN Translation Publishers Weekly Prize for his superb rendering of Wiesław Myśliwski’s Stone Upon stone! A marvel of narrative seduction, a rare double 250 000 Polish copies sold! masterpiece of storytelling and translation. Th e Times Literary FICTION Supplement 11

narrative techniques, as well Wiesław Myśliwski as the stylistic precision with which the main themes are Horizon handled. As we read this book, we feel reassured that Winner of the Nike Literary Prize 1997. contrary to popular belief, the novel is not dead, the About: the narrator, sees his father novel is still possible, and and himself as a boy. The the writer is not just doomed Wiesław Myśliwski spent adult Piotr travels with his to merely playing with some ten years working own son to his home parts literary conventions. on the ten chapters that to visit the village where constitute Horizon. None he lived in childhood, and of his previous works had there he rediscovers the Th e plot, the protagonists been as autobiographical centre of his own horizon. and the events in this novel RIGHTS SOLD: as this one, yet in describing The unbending power of are like the reality that Lithuania (Lithuanian Writers‘ his impoverished childhood fate shows through in the surrounds us – not fully Union Publishers) and the city of his youth, chance events of his life. transparent and explainable, he makes it feel as if he Horizon enthrals the reader demanding to pay close were describing the entire with its epic range, the attention, and to consider world. The story begins fl uency of its story-telling, our inner sense and the with a description of an old and the inventive way in consequences of our actions. photograph, in which Piotr, which it uses all sorts of Jerzy Jarzębski http://www.znak.com.pl 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 fi rst novel Who Was David Weiser (1987) was hailed by the critics as “the book of the decade,” “a masterpiece” and “a literary triumph” and has been published in Germany, Spain, France and Finland. It is a story of a mysterious disappearance of a Jewish boy during his summer vacations.12 Many years later Dawidek’s friend sets out to investigate the events that came to shape his entire life. The novel has been described as a coming-of-age story, an adventure novel or even as a philosophical treatise. Like Who Was David Weiser?, Huelle’s next two books Stories for a Time of Relocation (1991) and First Love and Other Stories (1996) are set in his home town of Gdansk and its environs, even though they are concerned with different historical periods and social milieus.

When I fi nish a book, I hope that some images will settle in my mind. I hope there are some of those in the book – powerful images for the readers to take away. From an interview in The Independent

http://www.znak.com.pl Copyright © by Adam Golec Paweł Huelle

Selected prizes:

• Long-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2013 Cold Sea Tales, the English translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones of Opowieści chłodnego morza • 2009 “Found In Translation” Prize for Antonia Lloyd-Jones for The Last Supper, the English translation of Ostatnia Wieczerza • Nike Literary Prize nomination 2008 for Ostatnia Wieczerza • The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2007 Castorp, the English translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones - shortlist • The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2006 Mercedes-Benz, the English translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones - shortlist • Polityka’s “Passport” in 2001 for Mercedes- Benz • The 1988 Koscielski Prize

FICTION 13

Praise for Huelle’s novels:

Full of powerful imagery. Th ese are often unashamedly Provides a rich and Th e Financial Times complex narratives...Echoes rewarding reading of Borges...Seductively experience. [Th ese stories] glow with elusive allegory. Dundee University the warmth of the past Edinburgh Review Review of the Arts that they conjure into life, and with the yearning for Powerfully evocative. Quirky, thoughtful and an intensity of feeling and Th e Good Book Guide poetic. experience that does not Th e Times wane as life passes by. Th e Independent

http://www.znak.com.pl Paweł Huelle Sing Gardens

Eagerly awaited publication of Pawel Huelle’s new novel.

Sing Gardens - publication date January 2014.

About:

As the eighteenth century comes to a close, François de Venancourt arrives in Gdańsk. When young girls and boys start to go missing from the neighbourhood, nobody suspects the genial Frenchman. Nor does anyone hear the RIGHTS AVAILABLE: moans of ecstasy or the groans of agony as he tortures his World victims in the cellar of his mansion. Towards the end of the 1920s, German composer Ernest Teodor Hoffmann buys the house from de Venancourt’s heirs, and moves into it with his wife Greta. Both of them are involved with the Forest Opera based in Zoppot, which is renowned for its performances of Wagner. Ernest Teodor has never had a high opinion of Wagner’s work or the ideology behind it, but he is aware of the rising power of Hitler. Only when he pays a visit to an old antiquarian in Budapest and fi nds the mysterious manuscript of an unfi nished opera does he start to believe in Wagner’s greatness. From then on, he is determined at any cost 14 to complete the work, which is about the Pied Piper of Hamelin. News of Wagner’s lost opera soon spreads within the Free City of Danzig and into the Reich beyond, and Ernest Teodor becomes entangled in the web of history on the grand scale. Many years later, when Danzig has been captured by the Russians and the German citizens are being deported en masse, the narrator’s father is given accommodation in Greta Hoffmann’s house. In the 1950s, the little boy who will grow up to tell the story about the Frenchman, Wagner and the Hoffmanns, befriends Greta, who is now an old lady. Greta teaches him German and shows him the vanished world of the Free City of Danzig. This is a very beautiful, superbly constructed novel about a bygone world where a variety of cultures, traditions and ethnicities interacted; about the Free City of Danzig and how Wagner’s mysterious opera changed the life of another composer and his wife; about the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and how another procession of rats came pouring through the streets of Danzig in sombre silence; about music in the shadow of Hitler, literature in the shadow of crime, love in the shadow of war, and about the unusual friendship between a small boy and an old lady.

http://www.znak.com.pl Paweł Huelle Who Was David Weiser?

About: RIGHTS SOLD: Brasil (Editora Planeta) “An intoxicating read,” “a masterpiece,” “novel of the Italy (Feltrinelli) decade,” “a book so good it’s fearsome” – this is just Germany (Weissbook.w) a random pick from the enthusiastic praise showered Czech Republic (Mlada on Who Was David Weiser? by the critics in Poland and Fronta) abroad. Hailed as the best Polish novel of the 1980’s, Sweden (Brombergs) translated into a number of languages, it made Paweł Hungary (Europa Kiadó) Huelle famous and granted him a secure position as one Norway (Gyldendal) of Poland’s most important contemporary writers. Finland (Otava) In 2000 it was adapted for the screen. According to the Spain (Seix Barral) director, Wojciech Marczewski, Weiser (starring, among Croatia (Naklada MD) others, Marek Kondrat, Krystyna Janda, Piotr Fronczewski Holland (Amber) and Zbigniew Zamachowski) is a fi lm about “memory, its Russia (Azbuka klassika) terrible power and its fallibility.” UK (Bloomsbury) None of the interpretations of Paweł Huelle’s novel have US (Harcourt) solved the mystery of the little David Weiser. Who was he? France (Bibliotheque Why did he draw his friends’ attention to himself? What truth l’age d’homme) was hidden behind his unusual ideas and experiments? And Hebrew (Yediot) fi nally, why did he disappear all of a sudden?

FICTION 15

Paweł Huelle Cold Sea Tales

About:

In these eleven stories Fifteen Shots of Vodka, in of his wife’s sudden death; Pawel Huelle shows his which the gendarme drinks, and real events – such master craftsmanship while in parallel scenes the as The Bicycle Express, in as a teller of beautiful, homeless woman he has which the narrator recalls evocative stories. Though terrorised on the road is the excitement of the days each tale is independent, exposed to the elements; when he helped deliver they all share a setting on mystery – such as Oland, in news bulletins from the the Baltic coast, whether which an enslaved shepherd striking dockyard at the of Poland or of Sweden, on a remote Scandinavian height of the Solidarity RIGHTS SOLD: and they all feature a large, island encounters a strange union, or The Flight to UK (Comma Press) signifi cant book, whether it and powerful magus who Egypt, where an artist tries is the Bible or a homeware shows him the way to to befriend a beautiful catalogue. They cover salvation, or Doctor Cheng, Chechen refugee and her a wide range of genres, in which a man encounters suspicious husband. including black comedy – a Chinese mystic who such as Gendarme Polanke’s reveals to him the secret http://www.znak.com.pl Paweł Huelle

About: The Last Supper The action of Pawel Huelle’s newest novel takes place in Winner of 2009 Found in Translation Prize given for the Gdansk, during a single day, best translation of Polish literature to English language. in the indescript, but not too distant future. The city has photo session organized Mateusz’s painting as undergone some substantial by Matthew, their mutual a springboard the book also changes; a couple of friend, who wants to paint continually takes up the streets have again The Last Supper. For each controversies surrounding switched names, mosques of them, this day, full of modern art. The Last Supper have sprung up near activities and unforeseeable for all its structural mastery, churches, the lives of the coincidences will prove erudite fi nesse and its handy residents are sporadically signifi cant in another way: dose of humour, is above paralyzed by mysterious each of them will have to all a merciless reckoning RIGHTS SOLD: explosions – in which some confront their past and with Polish religiosity; it is UK (Serpent’s Tail) see the workings of Islamic their signifi cant existential a poignant questioning of Germany (C.H. Beck) fundamentalists, others choices. The fate of the who we actually are and what Portugal (Principia) the workings of a madman, protagonists – in whom, really constitutes our faith. Russia (NLO) while others still suspect as if in a mirror, a whole Hungary (Europa Kiadó) sabotage by the producer of generation of Poles can Inventive and ironic, but Slovenia (Modrijan Založba) Monsignore brand wine. see themselves – is just riddling and elusive. Czech Republic (Kniha Zlin) A group of friends from one tier of this exceptionally Th e Independent Croatia (Meandar) old times are heading to a dense literary work. Using

16 FICTION

Paweł Huelle Castorp

About:

Huelle’s Castorp can be read as a variation on the Delightful... Gently, Magic Mountain theme, a sort of fantasy based on the deceptively provocative. Gdansk motifs in Thomas Mann’s novel, particularly Th e Observer cherished by the Gdansk-based writer. The life of Hans Castorp, a student at the Imperial Technical Academy, Full of depth and allusion... is monotonous and predictable, until the unexpected Wonderfully absurd humour. outbreak of a feeling for a beautiful, unattainable Polish Th e Independent woman. The ensuing psychic crisis leaves him pondering on Sunday RIGHTS SOLD: existential questions and discovering the darker side of UK (Serpent’s Tail) life. With the Gdansk old town, its fi n-de-siècle quarter Germany (C.H. Beck) Hungary (Europa Kiadó) Wrzeszcz and the popular seaside resort Sopot for Slovenia (Litera) action settings, the novel is blessed with a distinct, Israel (Am Oved) unforgettable atmosphere. Spain (Alianza Editorial)

http://www.znak.com.pl Paweł Huelle Mercedes-Benz

Over 50 000 Polish copies sold classes and parts with his infatuating instructor. The story ends with the news of About: Mercedes-Benz in which Bohumil Hrabal’s death and A most entertaining short his grandparents, along a most impressive literary novel, which begins in truly with some friends, chase praise of his writing and life. dramatic circumstances: a balloon thus inventing Being an extremely skilled the main character called a new type of automobile narrator, Huelle uses Paweł (just like the Author “fox hunt.” As the story Hrabal’s idea well and to whom he is surprisingly gradually moves to the alludes frequently to his similar) begins his driving present, Paweł, magnetised writing yet it is done in a RIGHTS SOLD: lessons and almost dies by his instructor’s beauty very non-obtrusive, and UK (Serpent’s Tail) of shame and humiliation. and sensitivity, gets to well-balanced manner. The Germany (C.H. Beck) Trying to delay an utter know some dramatic and narration is multi-levelled Holland (De Geus) calamity, he resorts to a beautiful facts from her and multidimensional, Israel (Xargol) truly Hrabalesque trick by life. This part of the story is motives from Hrabal’s France (Gallimard) Yugoslavia (Alfa Narodna) beginning to weave a story more about different human work are interwoven with Hungary (Europa Kiadó) about his grandparents’ fates in Poland at the time contemporary ones as Croatia (Meandar Media) cars. So we read of a brand- of economic and political well as with a nostalgic, Russia (NLO) new Citroën being smashed changes. But at some humorous and warm expe- Spain (Grup 62) by a train or of a mythic point Paweł fi nishes his dition into a family’s past. Turkey (Dogan Kitapcilik) Italy (Voland) Romania (Polirom) FICTION Portugal (Principia) Bulgaria (Colibri) Ukraine (Suchascnosc) – magazine edition Playful, bittersweet, juggling irony with regret. Czech Republic (Kniha Zlin) Th e Independent Lithuania (Mintis)

Written in the form of a letter to Bohumil Hrabal, Huelle’s autobiographical novel (complete with personal photographs) is also an homage to the late Czech writer. With long, expressive and visual sentences characteristic of his predecessor’s work, Huelle tells the stories of three generations in Poland, from its pre-war independence through the communist years to the uncertain period of Huelle’s youth at the turn of the century. Publishers Weekly

Huelle writes in such an engaging, chatty style that you hardly notice the fraught circumstances underlying every tale. Th e Guardian

Playful postmodernism Central European–style— entertainment for a decidedly select demographic: automobile afi cionados desperate for the inside skinny on Poland’s recent past. Kirkus Reviews http://www.znak.com.pl Katarzyna Krenz, Julita Bielak Hunters’ Moon

About: THE LITERARY SENSATION OF THE SEASON.

Sylt is an attractive place. With each successive prose pulsates with the The soft, misty island is phase of the moon Sylt compelling rhythm of the surrounded by a sea of uncovers its sinister secrets ebb and fl ow of the sea. stories and mysteries. And that unite strangers with And you’d better watch out, here there’s a fi fth element connections that are especially at this time of year, pulling the strings – the stronger than blood ties. when right before our eyes moon. Anxiety, mystery and the the setting sun encounters RIGHTS AVAILABLE: Thomas disappears. His destructive power of the the Hunters’ Moon, World daughter Sophie has gone elements interweave in summoning man to the fi nal missing without a trace, Hunters’ Moon to form an hunt, to stock up on food and her friend Cyryl loses unpredictable story about before the onset of winter. his memory in a puzzling chasing an elusive truth Then it is cold and cruel, accident. Thomas’s widow and about the illusion of and so bright that nothing is visited by a mysterious happiness. This bleak, on earth can hide, neither guest, whose charms are picturesque and pungent a fresh trail nor an animal. hard to resist. Will the key to it all turn out to be The English sample available. a shell? 18 FICTION

Th is is the sort of Katarzyna Krenz is a novelist and Julita Bielak is a fi rst- book we like. Full of time author. Although they live thousands of kilometres details and unsettling apart, and had never met before, together they have elements, it’s like written the most disturbing novel of recent years. a music box: you keep turning the handle, and out of curiosity you keep coming back to see what jewels you might still fi nd in it. Magdalena Parys

http://www.znak.com.pl Joanna Bator Teardrop Island

About: footsteps of the missing Sandra. Where the trail When the words “she goes cold, a dark story disappeared without begins – a story about love, a trace” begin to haunt her, loneliness and writing. what does writer Joanna A story about a journey to Bator do? She starts Sri Lanka, an island shaped searching for something like a teardrop, and about without knowing what it the world of Joanna Bator RIGHTS AVAILABLE: is. She looks for a sign. and her twin. World Until she comes across the name of Sandra Valentine, Golec’s photographs who in 1989 disappeared illustrate this dark journey Joanna Bator (born 1968) without a trace and whose to an island where people is a novelist, journalist body has never been found. and places exist both in the and university lecturer. real world and in the world Her former books were Bator and photographer of black magic. translated into fi ve Adam Golec set out in the languages. She received Nike Literary Prize in 2013.

FICTION 19

When I was reading this Night, and buried secrets. quite obsessively keeps to book for the fi rst time, I had Th is sensation has stayed herself. It’s a story about the sensation of surrendering with me. An electrifying crossing one’s boundaries to the narration as I would book. and about how to best set to the force of a rising tide: Karolina Macios, editor of such boundaries for oneself. at points it would pull me Teardrop Island Embarking on a journey in away from the missing the footsteps of a missing Sandra and towards Bator, Th is time Bator ventures woman, Bator brings a black then it would thrust me into the territory of notebook, a few things to towards the island, only metafi ctional prose, read and sharpened senses. to throw me, moments featuring many equivocal Her book is a puzzle. later, into the middle characters. She writes very Jarosław Czechowicz, literary of the ocean – with its seriously, but at times with blog With a Critical Eye boundless store of memories, irony too – about herself, the meticulously created world around her and the literary genealogy, glimmers conventions of describing Th is is my most of Bator’s Sandy Hill, that world. Th e result is autobiographical book. Cloudalia, and Dark, Almost a book in which the author Joanna Bator

http://www.znak.com.pl Dominika Słowik

About: Atlas Doppelganger

AIn this mesmerising, be interpreted in numerous Dominika Słowik (born hard-hitting fi rst novel, ways. It’s up to us to decide 1988). Atlas Doppelganger all that is ordinary, dirty which to choose. is her fi rst novel. Dominika and cheap is transformed is a graduate of Spanish in front of our eyes into Doppelganger. An eye that philology. She travels a the metaphysical and closely observes hypnotic lot and temporary lives in fantastical. A grey housing reality. An ear that listens Kraków. development in post- to the pulsating rhythm of communist Silesia carries urban legends. A hand that echoes of Macondo as well writes a story like no other RIGHTS AVAILABLE: as the Street of Crocodiles. before it. World The degraded world of courtyards and magical What could possibly be compelling about post-communist labyrinths of stairwells housing blocks where children use their schoolbags to are described in a sharp, toboggan down dark spoil heaps? Nothing, one would evocative style, in the think – seemingly nothing. A painfully ordinary existence language of the high-rise and normality till death; the banality of sociological universe so well known to observations. Out of all this, Dominika Słowik, with the the author. force of her talent, conjures up an extraordinary narrative, With its wealth full of pure magic and beauty. We have been waiting for and multiplicity of such a debut for many years. perspectives, the novel can Paweł Huelle 20 FICTION

About: Michał Witkowski Michał Witkowski returns to his favourite characters The Teninch from Lovetown. Dianka is looking for Michał Witkowski happiness in Vienna, which Michał Witkowski was born in Wrocław in 1975. seems to perfectly fulfi l Not often does the Polish publishing market witness her dream of a Western as spectacular a career as Michał Witkowski’s recent European paradise. But her rise to the peak of popularity. When his novel Lubiewo entrance to it is through the was published at the beginning of 2005 the young writer men’s public toilets, the best from Wrocław became a literary star almost overnight. place to earn some cash. Witkowski is one of the most talented and controversial Here she meets a Polish authors of his generation. His books gained an man whose nickname holds international success and were translated into more than RIGHTS AVAILABLE: great promise: Teninch. 10 foreign languages. World In his brand-new novel, marked by sardonic humour, the dread of everyday life Nike Literary Prize nomination: 2006, 2007, 2012 and the indiscreet charm of Gdynia Literary Prize 2006 the 1990s, the enfant terrible Polityka’ s passport 2007 of Polish literature returns Shortlist Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2011 to his literary roots. Angelus Literary Prize 2012 – shortlisted http://www.znak.com.pl Żanna Słoniowska The House with a Stained-Glass Window

About:

Four women – The daughter, an opera It turns outs that he was a great-grandmother, singer named Marianna, once her mother’s lover. a grandmother, a daughter is killed by a stray bullet Is this relationship just and a granddaughter – during a riot. When her his way of getting close to reside in a Lviv building with daughter grows up, she Marianna? a beautiful stained-glass meets Mikołaj, a much window. They live in a city at older artist and mentor. The The House with a Stained- the crossroads of cultures thread of understanding Glass Window is a moving and nationalities, a city that that develops between them story about women and RIGHTS SOLD: has a shortage of men, who is quickly transformed into history, about unpredictable The Old Lion Publishing have been kidnapped or mutual fascination. fates and about revolution, House, Ukraine scarred by history. But the which takes away loved women must also fi ght their The older man reveals to ones and turns the world Sample translation wars and revolutions. Faced his young lover the Lviv of upside down. It is also in French available. with a diffi cult reality, each of falling balconies, ornate about the awakening of them manages in her building façades and the desire for freedom, of own way. vandalised statues of Lenin. thought and of action.

FICTION 21

Żanna Słoniowska was born in 1978 in Lviv and “Słoniowska knows how to tell a fascinating story, is a Ukrainian journalist and she fully immerses us in the everyday life of and translator of Polish Ukraine. Th is is a surprising literary discovery that extraction. She lives in revitalises our literature.” Kraków. She is the fi rst winner of a new prize Justyna Sobolewska, Polityka founded by the publishing house, Znak, for the best “A city full of women’s secrets and History, which novel. Her winning entry, the author continues to interpret anew. Żanna The House with a Stained- Słoniowska surprises and seduces.” Glass Window, was chosen Jarosław Czechowicz from among almost a thousand submissions.

http://www.znak.com.pl About the author:

Marek Krajewski 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 achievement22 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 Kraków. 2015: Agnieszka Holland to direct TV series based on Krajewski’s book Death in Braslau.

http://www.znak.com.pl Copyright © by Wojtek Karliński Marek Krajewski Arena of Rats

About:

The year is 1948. The place someone has to fi nd the is Darłowo on the Baltic rapist and murderer. coast. The villain is a rapist, Popielski, who conducts who bites his victims. a secret inquiry, knows Popielski, formerly police what hell is – a labyrinth commissioner in Lwów, with no way out and no end escapes from Wrocław of suffering. and hides in a town run by But he doesn’t know it’s RIGHTS AVAILABLE: Red Army men and secret going to be his home. World police agents. Nobody here knows his past. Nobody Arena of Rats is the most suspects what he really has sinister and sensational on his conscience. When of all Marek Krajewski’s women start to go missing, crime novels.

FICTION 23

Marek Krajewski Lord of the Numbers

About:

Wrocław is the gateway to chapter in Popielski’s life, hell. Once you’ve passed and also in the history of through it, there’s no going the city. back. Suddenly Wrocław World-weary detective becomes a dangerous Edward Popielski is given labyrinth, a passage into a new commission – an a sinister world. You only RIGHTS AVAILABLE: investigation into the have to end up in the wrong World case of the son of a count, place at the wrong time, which at fi rst sight seems and the gateway to hell straightforward, but it soon stands open before you. opens a completely new

http://www.znak.com.pl Marek Krajewski In the Abyss of Darkness

50 000 Polish copies sold

The master of crime novel returns to Breslau.

About:

Breslau 1946. Evil is casting its net wider and wider. Somebody is preying on young girls. They’re raping and RIGHTS AVAILABLE: killing them. Three Red Army soldiers are keeping Popielski, the Polish secret police, the Soviet secret World police, and a certain crazy Russian awake at night. Each of them has different reasons for wanting to catch these monsters. Former Lvov police commissioner Popielski turns private detective. In his unoffi cial investigation he discovers the hell of the post-war underworld full of secret casinos, women for sale, all-powerful secret policemen and Soviet degenerates. Who will dare to look into the abyss of darkness?

24 FICTION

Praise for Marek Krajewski’s previous novels:

Krajewski has Mankell’s Part of the black magic Marek Krajewski – in his sharp eye for detail, in this book is the splendid series of crime but he has, too, a more reimagination of what novels Krajewski frames his sophisticated frame is now the Polish city of tantalising mysteries and of reference that may Wroclaw as it was for 700 gamey characters with an intrigue fans of Umberto years, the German city of almost hallucinatory sense of Eco and Boris Akunin... Breslau. place, as the books rebuild – [an] erudite novel... Th e Th e Times brick by brick, taste by taste. atmosphere of the novel Th e Independent is claustrophobic... Death Krajewski’s vision of Breslau in Breslau is a stylish, in 1933... is reminiscent So brilliantly evocative that intelligent and original of Georg Grosz... Death you can smell the cigar addition to the genre. in Breslau isn’t just an smoke and taste the herrings Financial Times exciting mystery, it’s the and the beer as you read. story of a lost Fatherland... Euro Crime Th e city of Breslau (today’s Wonderful. Wroclaw) is as much Th e Guardian a character in this thriller as the parade of gothic loons that inhabit it. Daily Telegraph

http://www.znak.com.pl Marek Krajewski The Rivers of Hades

39 000 Polish copies sold

About:

The third part of The Edward Popielski Trilogy.

The Rivers of Hades is the In order to survive Edward he has to hide because third part of the trilogy Popielski, Lvov’s most like many other members about Inspector Edward famous inspector, lost of the Polish Home Army, Popielski. everything, even his he is being prosecuted When World War II broke identity. He had to cross by the Communist secret RIGHTS AVAILABLE: out, no one knew how the the river of forgetfulness, police. Himself a wanted World world would look after which had fl ooded the man, Popielski conducts an it would end. However, pre-war world. In 1946 investigation he had started what happened surpassed Popielski fi nds himself in in 1933 in Lvov. everyone’s expectations. the ruins of Wroclaw, where

FICTION 25

broken, crushed, crippled Marek Krajewski body of three-year-old Henio Pytka is found by The Erinyes chance in a courtyard privy. This time further events will 67 000 Polish copies sold develop around this murder. Solving the riddle of this despicable offence can only About: the lady a story in which he be tackled by one man – features as the hero. Commissioner Edward The linchpin of Marek And so we shift to Lvov Popielski. Krajewski’s new novel is on the eve of the Second It will soon transpire that a meeting that although World War and at once we the child’s death and its specious, is also relevant get a sense of déjà vu, as perpetrator are far closer to to the plot, between a well the events described seem Popielski than might have RIGHTS SOLD: preserved old lady and a very somehow familiar. seemed possible, and that Ukraine (Urbino) elderly gent who “stinks like In fact, it is exactly the is because the degenerate a corpse” – as he himself same day, the very same who committed this act puts it – on the Breslau courtyard, the same grisly deserving the intervention Marketplace. This scene sight, and the same hideous of the Erinyes themselves, takes place in modern times, murder we witnessed in is targeting the youngest on a warm summer morning Krajewski’s previous book, and most innocent citizens in 2008. The gentleman tells The Minotaur’s Head. The of Lvov. http://www.znak.com.pl Marek Krajewski About: Charon’s Numbers May 1929. Lvov. Comissioner Edward Popielski was thrown out of police for insubordination. Finally, he trouble. And Lvov is once In Charon’s Numbers, has enough time for solving again is unquiet. One brutal Popielski has a chance to equations and… love. It is the murder after another. And change his life – get back to beautiful Renata who talks only the police know what the police and start a family him into undertaking a risky is written in a mysterious with a beloved woman. But job that soon lands him in letter from the murderer. love is blind, just like justice…

RIGHTS SOLD: Praise for Marek Krajewski’s previous novels: Krajewski carved out a new Ukraine (Urbino) niche, Polish noir. And what Wonderful Plugs you straight into the a neat niche it is: sweaty Guardian excesses of pre-war Europe, with decadent aristocrats, a world which Mock fl eshy with prostitutes and A stylish, intelligent and bestrides like some horny, pimps and corpulent with original addition to the brilliantined walrus. corpses...A bawdy, black- canon. Th e Metro humoured and a unique Financial Times. police tale. RTE Guide

26 FICTION

About: Maryla Szymiczkowa Mrs Szczupaczyńska, the professor’s wife, Mrs Mohr Goes Missing has a thousand things to do. She must remember The best-selling fi rst part of a retro crime the poussin for dinner, series by one of Poland’s top novelists. not forget to buy wine to prevent cholera, and check The literary mystery of the year. whether the new maid has cleaned the silver properly. inquisitiveness – that some Maryla Szymiczkowa was But at the same time she’s might call nosiness – she brought to literary life by: tremendously bored. starts to investigate. Jacek Dehnel (born 1980), Krakow in 1893 does not Mrs Mohr Goes Missing is novelist, poet and translator. RIGHTS AVAILABLE: offer much in the way of an astonishing pastiche He runs a blog dedicated to World entertainment. of the literature of the era the inter-war crime tabloid So when she happens to in which it is set. Here The Secret Detective. fi nd out that one of the we have a playful game Piotr Tarczyński (born inmates of the famous with convention, superb 1983), translator, historian Helcel House for retired style, clear-cut dialogues and specialist in American ladies has gone missing, and a perverse portrait studies. Descended from she goes into action. of Krakow in the late a long line of Cracovians, for Mobilizing her innate nineteenth century. ten years he has been living http://www.znak.com.pl as an émigré in Warsaw. 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.

27

http://www.znak.com.pl Antoni Libera Madame

About:

Madame is a novel about the stages of the young rec on cile, through art, the a writer’s coming-of-age. narrator’s journey through opposing forces of reason It ex plores the effects frustration, humiliation and passion. of dreams and fantasy, and disillusionment to his the magic of art and the fi nal acceptance of his lot as possibilities of imagination; a writer. At the same time Readers who admired RIGHTS SOLD: it subtly unveils the nature it is a very moving novel Bernhard Schlink’s Th e Germany (DTV) of myth and the ways in about strength and frailty, Reader won’t want to USA (Farrar, Straus which myth comes into fi rst love, and a young man’s miss this scintillating & Giroux) being. An immensely comic and painful attempts bil dungsroman... UK (Canongate) China (Alpha Books) rich, multilayered to come to terms with the A sophisticated coming-of- Australia (Text Publishing Co.) book, part parody, part confl ict between the ideals -age tale that’s Italy (Longanesi) fi ctional au to biog raphy, of the spirit and the re- also delicious high Sweden (Albert Bonniers) Madame chronicles alities of the fl esh – and to entertainment. Put this one Norway (Gyldendal) already on the list of this Holland (Prometheus) Greece (Patakis) year’s best novels. Finland (Tammi) Over 90 000 Polish copies sold Kirkus Reviews French language (Buchet Chastel) Catalonia (Proa) Russia (NLO) Lithuania(Strofa) FICTION Slovenia (Cankarjeva Založba) Israel (Yediot) Slovakia (Luˇc) Czech Republic (Paseka) Turkey (Dogan Kitap) Antoni Libera Portugal (Livraria Civilização Editora) Godot and His Shadow Spain (Tusquets Editores) About:

Godot and His Shadow is an the footsteps of the man to autobiographical tale of whom the epiphany is owed. the magic of literature and His eponymous Madame the author’s fascination was a fi ctitious character; with Samuel Beckett, one Beckett is real. In this book of the twentieth century’s again the narrator, like a most enigmatic writers. For detective, follows the leads Libera, the poetic oeuvre to the culmination: from of the “master of sadness Warsaw via New York and and loneliness” achieves London to Paris, where an the dimension of prophetic unusual encounter takes speech with the power to place. This time, however, RIGHTS SOLD: transform people and force a different thing is at stake. France (Noir sur Blanc) them to know themselves. Not love, but the answer to It is the story of an epiphany the question of the meaning and the journey following in of life. http://www.znak.com.pl Katarzyna Michalak

Camilla’s Garden, Gosia’s Retreat. Over 100 000 copies Julia’s Haven sold!

Katarzyna Michalak won Katarzyna Michalak is About: my heart a long time the author of over a dozen ago... Gosia’s Retreat, bestselling novels, The Bestselling trilogy by has, as ustal, a wonderful nicknamed „the queen one of Poland’s most loved atmosphere and characters. of women’s prose”. She women’s fi ction authors I love immersing myself skillfi lly chooses such The three novels making in the world created by different genres as: up the fl ower series are Katarzyna Michalak! women’s fi ction, crime the stories of how when www.empik.com fi ction, erotic novel, fantasy. everything is lost, one can RIGHTS AVAILABLE: She is also planning to still believe in dreams World And again I got completely write a historical novel coming true and the power lost in a book, again I forgot and a saga, as well as of love. Those are stories about everything and again a TV series script and about women and for I read hoping that the book a screenplay for a romantic women, full of emotions will never end. comedy. Her books have and unexpected plot www.lubimyczytac.pl been translated into twists. They showcase the Russian and Vietnamese. importance of loyalty and friendship among women.

FICTION 29

Hanna Samson Life After a Man About the author: About: Life After a Man is an Hanna Samson is one of indelible portrait of the best known Polish Precisely observed and a mature and experienced writers and essayists. superbly crafted new woman, combining Samson has published novel by Hanna Samson is a perfect sense of drama, in most important Polish a strong voice of a woman, background and context. journals and newspapers, who learns how to live Moreover, the author where she has written on her life for herself after describes a contemporary the current situation of many years devoted solely woman in a tone that is women in Poland and in to caring for others. The almost unprecedented – Europe. An experienced more is revealed about free from clichés or psychotherapist, Samson RIGHTS AVAILABLE: the heroine, the more stereotypes (either left or combines refi ned style with World hypnotising she becomes, right-wing) and without psychological insight. She is the more alluring is her passing judgment but with the author of several books, strong as steel and yet true warmth and her tongue e.g. Love – Reactivation; Men I am like Eve in paradise, delicate self. Sometimes fi rmly in her cheek. With vs. Women – War Against the only without Adam and funny, sometimes dramatic this book, Hanna Samson World and Flesh. The Act of with a past. story of a woman struggling proves that she represents Collective Subconscious. She with her past will not leave Polish contemporary is currently working on her any reader unaffected. women’s fi ction at its fi nest. new novel. http://www.znak.com.pl Izabela Sowa The Return

About:

Dorotka disappointed Corfu – but in her case For thirteen years Izabela everyone – instead of that’s not a sunny island, Sowa has implemented completing her degree at but Camping Out with a consistent writing plan – the Academy of Fine Arts Rotten Family, Unexciting. this is intelligent middle- she took up tattooing, The Return is the story of brow literature. instead of producing an a young woman who thinks Patrycja Pustkowiak, Lampa existing screenplay she she has left the school decided to write her own – of illusions in the past, Izabela Sowa has changed and then she went away. because she has faced up a lot since her fi rst RIGHTS AVAILABLE: Now she’s back – to Poland, to the thing that thirty- publications... she has shown World to her parents, to herself. year-olds generally run herself to be a close observer She’s still doing everything away from – adulthood. But of real life. in her own individual way, life turns out to be more Ewa Tenderenda-Ożóg, Książki surprising others with her surprising than the magical appearance and her ideas Land of Oz. about life. Will Dorotka prove strong She already knows she’s enough to stick to her path, spending her holiday in in spite of all?

30 FICTION

About: Izabela Sowa Under the bright Croatian sun the paths of three A Refuge exceptional women meet. Wiktoria, Jasna and Sandra 15 000 Polish copies sold are all looking for a refuge, a place to restore them the sense of safety. The lesson Izabela Sowa fi rst captured readers’ hearts with her they must learn together is by ’Fruit Series’ (The Taste of Raspberries, Sour Cherries, no means an easy one. One Blueberry Biscuits) and confi rmed her position as one can’t just borrow someone of the best-loved women’s fi ction authors with her next else’s recipe for life. novels: A Partition Wall, A Safety Pin and Private Parts. In Their triumphs and losses, her books, Sowa describes twenty- and thirtysomethings RIGHTS AVAILABLE: dreams and illusions, their facing ordinary problems in life. Admired for her style and World past and their presence cheerfulness, she likes yoga, winter and strawberries. She are woven together into loves cinema and always confuses people’s names. She is a subtle story of feelings an outspoken vegetarian. and important decisions. Izabela Sowa proves that happiness is always worth fi ghting for, even if one’s world is falling apart. http://www.znak.com.pl Dorota Gąsiorowska Łucja’s Promise

Łucja’s Promise, Łucja’s Dream – a best-selling series that has won the hearts of thousands of readers.

About the author: About:

Dorota Gąsiorowska is Life is full of unpredictable a brilliant musician and a specialist in marketing coincidences. his cold and soulless by training. She has Running away from her partner Adela, she can’t always written, but not for past, Łucja chances to ends help noticing that chance is publication. Finally she up in Rosebush Grove, playing an increasing role in RIGHTS AVAILABLE: decided to send her fi rst a charming town with an her life. novel to a publisher – and old, ruined manor house. Or maybe it’s not World everybody loved it. Łucja’s There, by chance she coincidence, but destiny? Promise was so well befriends a young woman Łucja’s Promise is an received that in her next who is dying, and makes emotionally thrilling story novel she went back to her an unusual promise: to about hope and truth. her favourite characters, fi nd her small daughter’s A story about destiny, describing their further father. which always goes its own fortunes in Łucja’s Dream. So when in surprising way. She is now working on her circumstances she meets next book. 31

Dorota Gąsiorowska Łucja’s Dream

About:

The story of a woman who in Rosebush Grove and wasn’t afraid to dream. offers to paint Łucja’s Łucja is a step away from portrait, she accepts. having her greatest wish A special relationship forms come true – a happy family between the artist and life with Tomasz. But our his sitter, which becomes dreams often come true in harder and harder to a completely unexpected ignore. RIGHTS AVAILABLE: way. Łucja must learn to fi ght World When she and Tomasz against her dreams. are forced to be apart for And if some roads prove a long time, her vision of impassable, she must fi nd their wedding evaporates the inner strength to seek like mist. And when other paths. a mysterious artist appears

http://www.znak.com.pl Non-32 -Fiction Maria Wilczek-Krupa Kilar: Genius with Two Faces

A HUMAN ENIGMA – FIRE AND WATER IN ONE MAN. THE FIRST BIOGRAPHY OF WOJCIECH KILAR.

About: home. Though involved in faithful to himself above all. the life of the Polish church, He wrote for the cinema, He lived outside the box, he was never fanatical. and openly admitted why with a contradictory nature. The love of his life was his he did it. Aware of the In his own words, “I’m like wife, Basia. Described as contempt of the musical Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. the golden couple of the world he suffered, but he He always stirred emotions. Polish arts, they also went was resolute. The fruits He was torn between the through some tough and of his work with Andrzej RIGHTS AVAILABLE: homeland he loved and disappointing times. Wajda, Roman Polański and World Hollywood, where his He was a man of fl esh and Francis Ford Coppola have “American dream” came blood. He loved expensive gone down in the history of true. One minute he’d be scents, elegant ties and world cinema for ever. racing one of his Mercedes travelling the world. He Packed with anecdotes, this the Maestro at the close cars at breakneck speed, loved books and cats. He biography could not have of his life. It is a testimony and the next he’d be was one of the greatest been written if not for the to the truth – maybe not ardently saying the rosary artists of his day. In his many hours of conversation always comfortable, but in the privacy of his own music he was always the author conducted with always sincere. 33

About the author:

Maria Wilczek-Krupa is a press and radio journalist, associated with Dzennik Polski, Kino and RMF Classic. She studied the theory of music at the Academy of Music in Krakow. For her work on her doctoral thesis on the fi lm work of Wojciech Kilar, she interviewed him at length.

http://www.znak.com.pl Beata Chomątowska

About: The Palace: An Intimate Biography

It’s not the Polish Versailles, or the Empire of the chronicler “wedded” About the author: State Building. It’s more to the building, the suicides like Kafka’s Castle. It is who jump from the thirtieth Beata Chomątowska is the source of many urban fl oor, and the people who a writer and journalist legends, including the idea write letters to the “Dear whose works include that it has thirty levels Palace” as if to an ancient reportage (Muranów underground, non-existent divinity. Station), a biography, fl oors, and a tunnel The Palace: An Intimate (Lachert and Szanajca, connecting it to the Party Biography is not just the Architects of the Avant- House. To this day it casts story of a place that has Garde), and a novel (True RIGHTS AVAILABLE: the longest shadow on its own soul and identity. Friends Meet in Breda). World Warsaw. Nor is it about yet another Beata Chomątowska is “ill-born” communist-era the fi rst writer to look at building, “the concrete the Palace of Science and wedding cake”, “Stalin’s Culture through the eyes gift” that many would like of the people whose lives to see demolished. It is also are linked with it. She about the dramatic changes discovers the dramatic fate that Warsaw and Poland of the Sigalin brothers who underwent in the twentieth designed it, tells the story century. 34 NON-FICTION

Władysław Bartoszewski Righteous Among Nations: How Poles Helped the Jews 1939-1945

About: help they afforded to Jews one of the most important at the risk of their own lives. works of twentieth-century Anyone who saves a single All of them were heroes who Polish historiography. life, saves the whole world, contributed to the toughest it says on the medals issued humanitarian operation in A pioneering work, in view by the Holocaust Martyrs’ Polish history. of the subject matter – and Heroes’ Remembrance Professor Władysław relations between Poles RIGHTS AVAILABLE: Authority at Yad Vashem. Bartoszewski has and Jews during the war, World To this day, 6,394 Poles dedicated many years of a topic formerly concealed have received Righteous research to discovering by silence. And the method Among the Nations medals and immortalising the too – telling history by in recognition of services fates of all these people prompting the participants rendered during the Second who were prepared to do and witnesses to events to World War. Many others good amid extreme evil. provide their accounts, which have not yet been included This invaluable collection of was not widely practised in this company, despite the accounts and documents is when the book was written. http://www.znak.com.pl Władysław Bartoszewski My Auschwitz

About:

This is the fi rst time the only escape route”, supplemented with Professor Bartoszewski was eighteen-year-old a selection of previously has written in such detail Władysław Bartoszewski. published texts chosen by and so openly about his Branded with the number Professor Bartoszewski, period of incarceration in 4427, this son of a bank which provide testimony the hell of Auschwitz. clerk had ended up in to life in the concentration His interlocutors in this a place where, as he puts it, camps, including Jerzy diffi cult conversation are “we stopped debating, for Andrzejewski’s short Piotr M. Cywiński and example, how terrible and story “Roll Call”, Father RIGHTS SOLD: Marek Zając. inhuman it was that they Augustyn’s essay “Behind Germany (Verlag Ferdinand On 22 September 1940 the were beating us. To our way the Wire at Auschwitz Schöningh) so-called second Warsaw of thinking, what mattered Concentration Camp”, Zofi a transport arrived at the most were the specifi cs – Kossak’s account “In Hell”, Auschwitz concentration was it worse to get it in the and Halina Krahelska’s camp. Among the fi ve-and- face or the kidneys? Better “Diary of a Prisoner”. a-half thousand prisoners, in the face, as long as it My Auschwitz is a book that who at roll call were told wasn’t with a stick, or your preserves the memory of by the camp commandant skull might crack.” one of the greatest crimes that “the gas chamber is The conversation is in the history of mankind.

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Władysław Bartoszewski Life is Hard But Not Dull: From the Memoirs of a Pole in the Twentieth Century

About:

A memoir providing a mine and imprisonment by the of information and a unique communist regime, through account of some unusual to work for Radio Free experiences. Europe and the PEN Club – From childhood to all this (and even more) is early youth in pre-war to be found in Władysław RIGHTS AVAILABLE: Warsaw, via memories Bartoszewski’s memoirs, World of September 1939 and here collected by Andrzej the Nazi occupation, Friszke. imprisonment at The result is not just Auschwitz, the Polish a mine of information about resistance, the Warsaw Bartoszewski, but also Uprising, clashing with the a fascinating account of post-war situation, activity the history of Poland in the in the Polish People’s Party twentieth century. http://www.znak.com.pl Władysław Bartoszewski The War Years 1939-1945

About the Author: About:

Władysław Bartoszewski The fi rst new edition for (1922–2015) was a politician, twenty-seven years of worker for voluntary causes, an anthology compiled historian, journalist, writer, by Professor Władysław knight of the Order of the Bartoszewski. White Eagle, and honorary The authors include Paweł citizen of Israel. In 1940- Jasienica, Antoni Słonimski, 41 he was a prisoner at Maria Czapska, and Jan RIGHTS AVAILABLE: Auschwitz. From 1942 he Parandowski. These studies, World worked for the Home Army General Command’s Bureau historical monographs, of Information and Propaganda, and was a co-founder essays, polemical articles Th is is enlivening reading of “Żegota”, the Council to Aid Jews. He took part in the and documents are an matter that gives one access Warsaw Uprising, and was imprisoned after the war (from attempt to tell the truth to commentary of the 1946 to 1948 and from 1949 to 1954). From 1972 to 1983 he about Poland’s recent highest quality, which in the was secretary general of the Polish PEN Club. He is the history, forming a very rich modern era of the onslaught author of hundreds of articles on modern history. The and comprehensive picture of barbarity and mediocrity Yad Vashem Institute awarded him the Righteous Among of times of villainy and is valuable in itself. the Nations medal. Since Poland regained independence heroism, shown in terms of Polityka in 1989, he was a senator, a diplomat, and twice Minister human attitudes and moral of Foreign Affairs. issues. 36 NON-FICTION

About: A new, expanded and Władysław Bartoszewski uncensored edition of Professor Władysław’s 1859 Days of Warsaw classic book. Thirty days in September 1939, the 1,763 of street round-ups and days of Nazi occupation and arrests, and minor sabotage Th e aim of my eff orts the sixty-six days of the operations. Thanks to was clear from the start. Warsaw Uprising add up to Bartoszewski’s painstaking I wanted to present as full the 1,859 days which are work we discover how a picture as possible of the the subject of this book – many people were shot or tragic fate of my city. a chronicle of the capital city transported to the camps Władysław Bartoszewski at war, suffering and ruined on any given day, what the but not vanquished. With temperature was, or the None of the living witnesses RIGHTS AVAILABLE: extreme attention to detail, price of a bowl of soup, to the Warsaw of those days World day by day Bartoszewski and what was on at the has achieved such a complete recounts Warsaw’s wartime theatres and cinemas. This view of contemporary reality history, citing not just book is not only a superb as Władysław Bartoszewski, German proclamations and historical work, but above all himself an eye witness to bulletins, but also directives the priceless testimony of the era. issued by the Polish a man who took part in those Professor Aleksander Gieysztor underground and articles events. A monumental work, from the underground press. a faithful and unrelenting http://www.znak.com.pl He describes the daily rituals document. Marcin Zaremba Great Terror Poland 1944-1947, the Popular Reaction to Crisis

About:

Red Army soldiers, corrupt after the Second World sort of questions millions militiamen, deserters, War, without any myths or of Poles were asking bandits, hundreds of communist falsifi cation. themselves. thousands of cripples, Here we fi nd a shattered orphans and beggars – society, where acts of these are the people who violence and robbery were About the author: created the real landscape everyday fare, and where of post-war Poland. a population devastated Great Terror is RIGHTS SOLD: Marcin Zaremba takes by fi ve years of occupation a groundbreaking work Germany (Verlag Ferdinand the reader on a shocking were kept awake at night by of scholarship, as well Schöningh) journey through a time anxiety about the future. Is as a fascinating account World English Rights that has disappeared from there going to be another by this historian who is Polish memory – through war? Will I be able to survive also a regular contributor a war-ravaged country famine and epidemic? How to the weekly news full of terror, poverty and am I to fi nd a home and a job magazine Polityka and uncertainty. of some kind in a country the daily newspapers Great Terror is the history that doesn’t even have fi xed Gazeta Wyborcza and of the years immediately borders? These were the Rzeczpospolita.

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prison camps, a struggle for Anna Herbich survival and to keep their loved ones alive, starvation, Girls from Siberia sickness and the terrible Siberian winter. The About the author: a punishment she was left suffering they endured was to die in a freezing isolation unimaginable, but nothing Anna Herbich (born 1986) cell. could destroy them. is a journalist and author of Alina was the only member The amnesty was their the best-selling Girls of the of her entire family to be salvation. Some set off Uprising, which sold 50,000 deported – she ended up in with Anders’ army. Many copies. She has a three- a children’s camp at the age began a new life in various year-old daughter called of ten. corners of the world. Others Zosia and lives in Warsaw. They all have the same decided to go back to their RIGHTS AVAILABLE: memories of rifl e butts homeland. World About: banging on the door, a few Some of the heroines of moments to pack their this book have never told Stefania was lost at cards things, weeping, cattle their loved ones about the of Soviet exile through the twice by the criminals from trucks, and the crash suffering they endured in eyes of the women who the prison camp – she of doors being bolted. Siberia. Anna Herbich gives miraculously survived their survived thanks to a female Then a journey of several a heartbreaking description Siberian nightmare. friend. thousand kilometres into of the struggle for survival Natalia came to the defence the unknown. Ahead of them in the “inhuman land”. of a beaten woman – as lay slave labour in Soviet She shows us the drama http://www.znak.com.pl Aleksandra Zaprutko-Janicka

About: The Occupation Seen from the Kitchen

During the Nazi occupation us street markets and About the author: of Poland hunger was smugglers’ hideouts from universal, but it prompted the days of the Second Aleksandra Zaprutko- some amazing ingenuity World War. This is an Janicka is a historian and among the Poles as they account of times when journalist. She and her tried to fi ll their stomachs illegally killing a pig could husband co-founded and by cooking just about land you in Auschwitz, jointly run Poland’s major everything and breaking vegetables were grown in history website, www. all sorts of dietary taboos. courtyards, acorns were ciekawostkihistoryczne.pl General Bor-Komorowski used in all sorts of ways, ate cat in cream sauce and used tea leaves were RIGHTS AVAILABLE: without even noticing. traded on the black market. World Aleksandra Zaprutko- The Occupation Seen from Janicka introduces us to the Kitchen is not just about domestic kitchens, takes struggling against famine, us behind the scenes but above all a history of at restaurants and into Polish resourcefulness and musty pantries, and shows fortitude.

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Anna Wojtacha We’ll Love You Or Kill You: Tales from Russia

About: constructing a Gazprom About the author: pipeline, a soldier who The people of Putin’s fought in the Chechen Anna Wojtacha is empire through the eyes of war, a homeless man from a journalist and war war correspondent Anna Ulan Ude and a Moscow correspondent. She has Wojtacha prostitute. worked in Georgia, the Gaza Wojtacha doesn’t look at Strip, India, Afghanistan Anna Wojtacha seeks Russia with the cold eye and Thailand. out people in extreme of a reporter. She tries to RIGHTS AVAILABLE: situations. understand the Russians, World their attitude to power and Here you’ll fi nd stories that the dramatic choices they won’t appear on television have to make. She goes so and people who would never deep into their world that talk in front of a camera: fi nally she too must start to a Spetsnaz sniper, the men make choices.

http://www.znak.com.pl Piotr Rybicki fot. Jerzy A. Wlazło, Zbigniew Pawlak

Fractured City: Beslan Fractured City tells the story of the tragedy that hit the people of Beslan. It The moving story of the Caucasus torn in two. describes the helplessness of the parents who could do About: nothing for their children, the vengeance and hatred Beslan is a small town at The town split and divided of the terrorists who had the foot of the Caucasus into those who had lost previously lost loved ones Mountains. The start of everything and those who of their own, and about the new school year was will never understand them. the courage of those who always a happy event here. Zbigniew Pawlak was in volunteered to remain in the In 2004 all that changed Beslan in the days following school with the children. RIGHTS AVAILABLE: when some masked, very the tragic events. He visited This moving story keeps us World well prepared gunmen more than a hundred mindful of the fact that in forced their way into the Ossetian families, living in every war there are ordinary school. Three hundred and their homes and listening people on both sides of the thirty-four people were to their stories. Ten years barricade. It also gives us killed, half of whom were later, he went back to fi nd some understanding of the children. To this day it was out how their lives have Caucasus – wild and exotic, Europe’s worst and most changed. but torn apart by violent brutal terrorist attack. confl ict for years on end.

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About the author: Joanna Glogaza Joanna Glogaza is the Slow Fashion: How to Achieve a Unique author of Poland’s well- Style by Buying Less known blog, slow fashion styledigger.com. Her areas of study include predicting BUY LESS, LOOK BETTER trends in fashion and design in Warsaw and photography About: and urban culture in London. In partnership Slow fashion means good quality clothing. with her mother, she has intelligent shopping. Build a luxury wardrobe used her knowledge and RIGHTS AVAILABLE: Change not just your without spending more than experience to found a brand World wardrobe, but your way before. called Lunabay, which of thinking about fashion Find out how to care for designs luxury pyjamas. and style, about how you your clothes to prolong She loves good quality dress and how you spend the life of a favourite shirts, she looks good in your money. Change your sweater. Work out your own navy blue, and her own mass-produced clothes for individual style – we don’t personal wardrobe mixes unique, inimitable attire. all have to wear stripes, and men’s accessories with Learn to plan successful not all of us look good in fl oaty dresses. shopping and to recognise black! http://www.znak.com.pl Angela Bajorek

About: The Heretic from Workers’ Housing Block: A Biography of Janosch Janosch was born in a working-class district of Zabrze in Upper Silesia Janosch’s life has been and the enlightening in 1931. For many years, a string of colourful wisdom of the East. he tried to exorcise the episodes and adventures, horrors of his childhood including his jazz- Janosch is a writer and with the help of alcohol. fi lled years in Paris, his illustrator, a wise man and Expelled from the Academy motorcycle wanderings a heretic, a blasphemer and of Fine Arts in Munich, he along the French Riviera, a godly man. He does not became a famous illustrator hippy parties in Munich, like giving interviews, but RIGHTS SOLD: with an inimitable style. The the burning of all his he decided to put his trust Germany (Ullstein) two children’s book heroes possessions, and his escape in Angela Bajorek and has he created, Little Bear and to Canary Islands. In the revealed to her his secrets, Little Tiger, have become southern sun, he found becoming the protagonist of more popular than Disney salvation and happiness, as one of the most marvellous characters. However, well as freedom, anarchy biographies imaginable. the non-conformist and rebellious Janosch also illustrated the works of The fi rst-ever biography of Janosch, written the Marquis de Sade and with his participation. Charles Bukowski.

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About the author: “Th e Heretic from Silesia by Angela Bajorek is a pioneering book.” Angela Bajorek graduated Gazeta Wyborcza from the German Philology in Wrocław and now she “Th is fi rst attempt at a biography of the author of the cult works as an associate classic Cholonek and the books about Little Bear and Little professor at the Institute Tiger is, above all, brilliantly written.” of Modern Languages www.recenzjeksiazek.pl in Pedagogical University in Cracow. “Th e publication of this biography is a great event, revealing While working on her book to us this most mysterious of mysterious Silesians, the man about Janosch, Angela at the centre of the whole Janosch industry. It’s very likely Bajorek achieved almost that it will soon be translated into other languages, starting the impossible. She got with German. For many, it will be a must-have book.” in close touch with Janosch www.interia.pl himself and made him speak openly about his adventurous life. Ullstein’s premiere: spring 2016!

http://www.znak.com.pl Sylwia Frołow

Dzierżyński: Love and Revolution unparalleled portrait of the man responsible for the About: most brutal political police Independent Poland’s fi rst this man is incredible. force in history. biography of the Pole who Who was Feliks Follow the fortunes of was head of the Cheka – Dzierżyński? Feliks Dzierżyński from Feliks Dzierżyński Journalist and reporter his early childhood and Red executioner. Benefactor Sylwia Frołów tries to school years, through of orphaned children. Polish answer this question. As his preparations to enter aristocrat. The sword and she tells Dzierżyński’s life a clerical seminary, his shield of the working class. story, she confronts the career as a revolutionary Loyal servant of Lenin and many myths that are told and terrorist, to his post as Stalin. Relative of Marshal about him. She tries to the most infl uential Pole in RIGHTS SOLD: Piłsudski. Cynical political probe his way of thinking Soviet Russia. Czech world rights instructor. Blind fanatic. without falling into any (Premedia Group) An atheist, who wrote unsubstantiated justifi cation Russia (AST) of himself: “I believe in for his crimes. Thanks to Christ’s teaching alone, some exceptional material – About the author: in His Gospel”. Loving including previously father, caring brother unknown letters and notes Sylwia Frołow is an editor who works at the weekly and passionate lover. The by Dzierżyński himself, and cultural magazine Tygodnik Powszechny. For several years number of mysteries and direct conversations with she was secretary to Professor Jerzy Pomianowski. She paradoxes that surround his family – she draws an lives in Krakow.

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compulsions, phobias or Magdalena Grzebałkowska artistic mania. Or building a career, making money, The Beksińskis: A Double Portrait holding exhibitions and the critics’ responses to them. About the author: The main topic of this It is not about strange book is not a famous, emotional relationships, Magdalena Grzebałkowska fashionable artist who or about being obsessed studied history at the painted strange and with music, cinema, and University of Gdańsk. She terrifying pictures. Nor is the latest technology. Nor is a reporter for Gazeta it his gloomy son, who was is it even about people who Wyborcza and has previously obsessed with death and wrote long letters. written a best-selling spent a long time trying First and foremost, it is biography of Father Jan to commit suicide until he a book about love – about Twardowski, The Paradoxical fi nally succeeded. Nor is searching for it, and being RIGHTS AVAILABLE: Priest. it chiefl y about passions, incapable of expressing it. World

About: Something rather wonderful has happened posthumously to the mysterious Beksińskis, father and Over 45 000 Polish This is a book about son. It is that Magdalena Grzebałkowska has written copies sold! love – about searching for a profound and brilliant book about them. A real seam it and being incapable of of gold has found an excellent miner. expressing it Mariusz Szczygieł http://www.znak.com.pl Marta Orzeszyna He created the images of the greatest stars, including Antoine Cierplikowski: King of Stylists, Brigitte Bardot, Edith Piaf, Stylist of Kings Greta Garbo and Pola Negri. His clients were kings and Europe, he soon had salons About the author: princesses. But it was he in all the world’s most that gave them the orders. fashionable places. The Marta Orzeszyna is an And they loved it. press described him as the expert on French literature He liberated women from creator of modern woman. and culture. She lived in their long hair, though It’s hard to think of any Paris for ten years, where many regarded it as an act other Pole who achieved she came upon the story of Satan. The fashion for such a stunning career. The of Antoine, and began to Antoine’s hair styles spread master of elegance, he was gather material about him. RIGHTS AVAILABLE: like wildfi re. Even Eleanor a provocateur and original, On her return to Poland she World Roosevelt waited patiently who slept in a crystal coffi n. co-authored a best-selling in line at his salon – and He only failed once, when novel with Małgorzata emerged from it with he decided to live in his Gutowska-Adamowska, About: a garconne cut. America original homeland. His art Journey to the City of Lights. went wild. proved too sophisticated for She is also the co-author A boy from Sieradz went Cierplikowski methodically uncouth communist Poland. of Paris: City of Art and to Paris with fi ve francs in built up his empire. He paid a high price for the Love in the Belle Epoque. his pocket. Soon he was Friend of the stars and great talent that placed She lives in her home hairdresser to the world. the crowned heads of him on top of the world. town, Namysłów, with her husband and three sons.

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“people who inspire me and make me vibrate.” Małgorzata Czyńska When asked after his death about her lover Picasso’s The Greatest Beauties: pictures, Dora Maar said: the Women in the Paintings “Perhaps on the walls of a gallery they’d be worth remain unspoken – the faces – now it’s time to know half a million. On the walls stories of the women in the their fortunes. of Picasso’s mistress paintings are astonishing and they have an additional, painfully true. Human, often About the author: historical value.” full of warmth, often tragic, When Vermeer’s wife sold and always fascinating. Małgorzata Czyńska is the baker her husband’s Behind each of the paintings an art historian, critic and fi nal pictures to feed their that we know and admire curator of exhibitions. She RIGHTS AVAILABLE: eight children, it was a long a real life lies hidden, full collaborates regularly World time since she had owned of passion, eroticism and with Polish press and the famous jewellery that dedication to art. magazines, where she About: features in The Girl with It is no coincidence that tackles such subjects as “I paint kings and a Pearl Earring, among the women who posed for an art, interior design and prostitutes,” said Tamara other paintings. the world’s most famous biographies of the artists. de Lempicka, one of the Suicide prompted by paintings were such unusual For Czyńska, the concept greatest Polish painters, unrequited love, great individuals, femmes fatales, of an art is very broad. It passions, cruel betrayals, liberated women and Muses. consists of fashion, design http://www.znak.com.pl and family secrets that We all recognise their and even, of personalities. Andrzej Franaszek Miłosz. A Biography

About the author:

Andrzej Franaszek is literary critic, editor in the culture section of Tygodnik Powszechny, graduate of Polish philology at the Jagiellonian University. He concentrates on the life and work of contemporary Polish writers. He published, among others, Ciemne źródło. Esej o cierpieniu w twórczości Zbigniewa Herberta (nominated to Nike literary prize in 1999, second edition: Znak 2008), Przepustka z piekła. 44 szkice o literaturze i przygodach duszy (Znak 2010) and fi rst and foremost RIGHTS SOLD: the monumental biography of Czesław Miłosz. Lithuania (Apostrofa) The author now works on the biography of Zbigniew Belarus (Lohvinau) Herbert.

Shortlisted for the Nike Literary Prize in 2012.

The event of the year of Czesław Miłosz! An exceptional life, an exceptional biography.

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About:

Miłosz. A Biography by and he examined them Library and Maisons- with empathy, he helps the Andrzej Franaszek is not thoroughly in his works, Laffi tte, he investigated reader to learn the secrets only a colourful portrait of which surprise the reader the poet’s extensive of a fascinating life of one of the greatest authors with their range of artistic correspondence. What is a great man. Reading the of the 20th century, but also diversity. more, he used his material work of Andrzej Franaszek, a historical account showing Andrzej Franaszek was in an amazing manner – he we gain hope that we the brutal paroxysms of collecting materials for does not overwhelm the may understand the that time: wars, revolutions, the biography for almost reader with excess data, but phenomenon of Milosz’s totalitarianisms, uprisings, ten years – in Poland and rather he creates a portrait talent, the intricacies of his independence movements. Lithuania, in France and of the hero of his story personality – that we may The poet, who lived for the United States. He in an effortless style. He understand what shaped almost hundred years, spoke with everyone who does not avoid painful and his mind, imagination and experienced all those could contribute important diffi cult subjects, delicate poetic sensitivity. events personally – as well information about Miłosz, personal matters, dramatic as the fate of an exile, so he searched through decisions and choices. He characteristic of that time – the archives at Beinecke presents them tactfully and

http://www.znak.com.pl Anna Bikont, Joanna Szczęsna About: Dusty Keepsakes: The Biography Wisława Szymborska was of Wisława Szymborska not pleased when she learnt that Anna Bikont and Joanna Szczęsna were Over 48 000 Polish copies sold writing a book about her. Considering personal The fi rst biography of Wisława Szymborska. confi dences as something inappropriate, Szymborska preferred not to speak of Dusty Keepsakes is the of Szymborska’s famous her private life. fi rst biography of the hand-made postcards and Nonetheless, the Authors Nobel Prize winner to date, collages. RIGHTS SOLD: made the Poet reveal many covering also the last 15 All this makes Dusty Israel (Carmelph) unknown facts from the years of the poet’s life. Keepsakes an excellent Italy (Adelphi) history of her life. The book is not only story which is able to Spain (Pre- Textos) As a result, the series of the enriched with the memories communicate to the reader interviews were transformed of the poet’s dearest friends the puzzling phenomenon into a very personal journey, and subtle interpretations of Wisława Szymborska’s treated by Szymborska of Szymborska’s poetry personality and works, with her unique sense of and essays, but it also alongside with her great humor, delight at the keen contains private photos sensitivity towards the beauty of human life and never published before everyday attractions of characteristic taste for and examples of some human existence. paradox. 44 NON-FICTION

About the authors: Praise for the book:

Anna Bikont is one Joanna Szczęsna was Th e authors nearly made the impossible: the small things of the founders of the Associated with Workers’ have created a picture of someone who despite being leading Polish newspaper Defence Committee modest, introvert and discreet was at the same time Gazeta Wyborcza where (KOR). She is one of a Queen. she has worked since the founders of Polish Someone, who insisted on secrecy both when it came to her 1989. Her publications independent press’ titles: own person and her poetry. include: Avalanche and Biuletyn Informacyjny, Th rough the cloud of cigarette’s smoke Szymborska Stones. Writers vis-à-vis Tygodnik Mazowsze and continues to elude the reader, being so present again. Communism, written Gazeta Wyborcza0. Tadeusz Sobolewski together with Joanna Szczęsna (Grand Prize of Dusty Keepsakes is a careful analysis of Szymborska’s life the Cultural Foundation which is read like a novel. 2007) and We from Onet.pl Jedwabne. Its French edition won the the European Book Szymborska fi ts perfectly into my defi nition of Prize in 2011. a deep and clear – sighted artist who at the same time remembers that her major duty is to entertain the reader. I am honoured that she knows of my existence. Woody Allen

http://www.znak.com.pl Ryszard Horowitz An Extraordinary Life: Recollections of a Photocomposer

An absorbing story about overcoming ill fortune, about yearning for freedom and about an American dream that came true.

About:

The artistic circles of of contemporary advertising Brubeck and Richard post-war Kraków and the and the most famous Polish Avedon. He not only offers beginnings of the legendary photographer of all time, us a colourful portrait of Pod Baranami cabaret. writes about chance and an era but also unveils the RIGHTS AVAILABLE: New York, straight from fate, about the hard road secrets of his photographic World the series Mad Men – a city to success and the power workshop. of jazz, big dreams and of love. He takes us behind unlimited possibilities. the scenes of the ruthless An Extraordinary Life All of this preceded by world of show business contains photos from his the hell of the ghetto and and talks about his long- family archives as well concentration camps. standing friendship with as brilliant work by the Roman Polanski and his author. In his autobiography, encounters with Mick Ryszard Horowitz, a pioneer Jagger, Andy Warhol, David

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Ryszard Horowitz was born in Krakow and then went around the globe and in May 1939 in Kraków. Four on to major in painting at Horowitz has been awarded months later the Nazis the Academy of Fine Arts every major accolade had invaded his homeland in his home city. In 1959, that can be bestowed on and his entire family ended he fi nally achieved his a photographer including up being sent to a series ambition of immigrating Gloria Artis Gold Medal of of concentration camps. to the United States and merit to culture awarded They miraculously survived enrolled at New York’s by the ministry of culture of and at the war’s end were famed Pratt Institute.In Poland and Doctor Honoris amongst the few Jewish November 1967 he opened Causa awarded by Warsaw families who were able to his own photography Academy of Fine Arts, and re-establish their lives in studio. Photography Wroclaw Academy of Fine Krakow. Ryszard Horowitz is would be his lifelong Arts. He is recognized as one of the youngest known career and passion. In the a pioneer of special effects survivors of Auschwitz. ensuing four decades his photography predating Horowitz studied art at the work has been exhibited, digital imaging. High School of Fine Arts published and collected

http://www.znak.com.pl Grażyna Jagielska She’s Coming Home For Good

About: long dormant traveller’s back from her journey to gene awakes in her, so she the confl uence? Will she “Don’t go,” said Wojtek, as sets off alone on a journey manage to get home? he saw me off on the plane she has been dreaming of to Manaus. “Come home since childhood – deep into “Can you remember a time with me. We’ll work it all out. the Amazonian jungle, up when you were happy?” You’ll be who you want to be.” the Rio Negro. the doctor repeated. Grażyna Jagielska, author She’s looking for the “Regardless of where or for of the best-selling Love answers to the questions what reason. Just happy.” RIGHTS AVAILABLE: Made of Stone and Angels she’s been asked so many I searched my mind, not World Eat Three Times A Day, times – who is she, and so much for that sort of mother, wife and translator, what makes her feel happy. moment in my life, as for has spent many years Will the unexpected a defi nition of that happiness in one place, constantly appearance of Ewa, a friend the bastard was asking me waiting. from the hospital, prevent about. What did it mean? Now that she has been her from fi nding the Happy? For god’s sake! through therapy and left answers? Will a rising fl ood the psychiatric hospital, the foil her plans? Can she turn

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About the author:

Grażyna Jagielska (born 1962) is a journalist by training, a traveller by choice, and a writer and translator by profession. Her novels include The Correspondent, Tacking and Płaskuda, her translations include books by J.G. Ballard, Fay Weldon and Joanna Trollope, and her memoirs include Love Made of Stone: Life with a War Correspondent and Angels Eat Three Times a Day: 147 Days in a Psychiatric Clinic. Her husband, Wojciech Jagielski, is a writer and war correspondent. fot. Maciej Biedrzycki / FORUM Maciej Biedrzycki fot.

http://www.znak.com.pl Grażyna Jagielska Love Made of Stone

40 000 Polish copies For twenty years I’ve been preparing for my sold! husband’s death. I’m almost ready.

About: Grażyna Jagielska has written an intimate but Fifty-three wars. Grażyna Jagielska’s book not warm book. I read For him, life at its fullest, is a beautifully written, it with fascination. It is adventure, adrenaline, heart-rending depiction of a daring, brutal story about pieces of reportage winning her relationship with the the striking power of war. awards all over the world. best-known Polish war About the price women RIGHTS SOLD: For her, loneliness, correspondent. The most pay for being married France (Editions des indescribable longing, important war – the war to a war correspondent. Equateurs) deadly fear. And several for love, family and life – is I wonder what price the months in a post-traumatic the one they had to wage correspondent will pay for war clinic although she between themselves. this book. had never been to war. It is Wojciech Tochman his stress. He had always burdened her with all his Le Monde and Der Spiegel have written about the book. problems.

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Marek came back from the Grażyna Jagielska war a hero, but he couldn’t go on living with the things Angels Eat Three Times A Day he’d seen there. Karolinka was certain she About: men who had to learn was an angel, and that how to cry. She was in a nobody could see her. For years Grażyna Jagielska place where anything was Jagielska takes us on a was paralysed by fear. She possible. Only one thing journey full of intimate suffered the anxieties of wasn’t allowed – telling lies. confessions and genuine her husband’s career. She Julia just had to be better emotions. In moving sacrifi ced her life to his and better, until the stress terms she describes the passion. But fi nally she of it made her cut off her asylum for lost souls and had to fi ght for herself, and own ear. the images that persecute underwent her own “fl ight The lifeguard was always them for years on end. She RIGHTS AVAILABLE: over the cuckoo’s nest”, shaving his head, convinced writes about the need for World spending six months in a it would turn him into a sincerity, for understanding psychiatric hospital. different person. and for closeness. There she got to know 23 000 Polish copies women just like her, who sold had spent years on end Discover the secrets we can’t even tell our pretending everything was nearest and dearest. The author of Love Made all right. She met tough of Stone breaks more taboos. http://www.znak.com.pl Wojciech Jagielski returned to the PAP, with plans to focus on analysis and long-form reportage from international confl ict Pulitzer”), the Dariusz Washington, and also why zones. He specializes in Fikus Prize (2002), the he gives priority to Abkhaz Africa, Central Asia and the PAP’s Gold Badge of Merit guerrillas over Parisian About the author: Caucasus. The Trumpeter (2005) and the Italian waiters. Yet very many from Tembisa is his sixth Letterature dal Fronte people know that he writes Wojciech Jagielski is novel, following Scorching Award (2009). the best foreign reports in a journalist and foreign the Grass, A Good Place Although he is often the entire Polish press. correspondent who to Die (1994, about the compared with Ryszard Gazeta Wyborcza graduated in journalism Caucasus), Praying for Rain Kapuściński, from the very Without putting himself on from the Warsaw University. (2002, about Afghanistan, start he has blazed his own show in the role of narrator, He started working in the nominated for the Nike literary trail. Jagielski relates what 1980s as a reporter for the Award and the Józef His books have been happened, good and awful, Polish Press Agency (PAP), Tischner Prize), Towers translated into English, and gives a voice to people and from 1991 until 2012 of Stone (2004, about Spanish, Dutch and Italian. who took part in events, but he worked for Poland’s Chechnya), and The Night he does it with tact, skill and leading daily newspaper, Wanderers (2009, about Praise for the author: wisdom. Kapuściński has Gazeta Wyborcza. Jagielski Uganda and the Lord’s a successor, who has even was also a correspondent Resistance Army). He has Jagielski writes about the followed in his footsteps for the BBC and Le Monde. won a number of major strangest places on earth. by joining the Polish Press In April this year he prizes including: the Polish Th ere are a lot of things he Agency. Journalists Association can’t understand, which is Newsweek Polska Prize (1995, the “Polish why he prefers Kashmir to 48 NON-FICTION

Wojciech Jagielski

About: All Lara’s Wars

This story is told in Lara’s But Lara had her own war Following on from The Night own words. She explains to fi ght – the battle for them Wanderers and Burning the how her sons, Shamil to come home. Grass, Jagielski has written and Rashid, Georgians of another gripping story, the Chechen descent, went to Worlds that appear to have signifi cance of which is live in Europe, where they nothing in common – the far deeper than the events became Europeans and “Russian continent” and it describes, and which started families of their its sphere of infl uences, deprives us of the comfort own. But some years on, the and the Middle Eastern of stereotypical thinking. RIGHTS AVAILABLE: European paradise began caliphate – turn out to be World to feel shockingly alien closely connected. Wojciech Wojciech Jagielski on the to them, a spiritual void. Jagielski describes how vicious circle of holy war. Instead they were drawn to fundamentalism arises at A journey from Georgia via the holy war – a war for the the point where they meet. the paradise of Europe to values they believed in. And This is what the world is war-torn Syria. A unique that was how they ended up like when war comes to our report on the burning in Syria... homes. issues of the twenty-fi rst century. http://www.znak.com.pl Wojciech Jagielski The Trumpeter from Tembisa

The story of the inspiring strength of Nelson Mandela. About passion, and the price that has to be paid for it.

About: Football World Cup held in fate be connected with that South Africa. of Mandela? On the one hand this is Maake is an ordinary Journalism is a passion too. the life story of Nelson African. He doesn’t live Jagielski, one of Poland’s Mandela, one of the world’s and breathe politics, but and Europe’s best foreign greatest twentieth-century football. He hardly takes correspondents, also pays leaders, who paid a huge any notice of the political a high price for his writing. RIGHTS AVAILABLE: price in his personal life storms, strikes, riots, And so do his family. But he World for his political success. On debates and revolutions persists in believing that it’s the other it is the story of that shake the country – worth following the call of Freddie Maake, inventor at any rate he doesn’t a man who is free, a man of the vuvuzela, the horns understand much about like Mandela. that were so popular at the them. How on earth can his

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Wojciech Jagielski A Good Place to Die

The story of the war-torn Caucasus.

About: through another hellhole Jagielski shows all the of frenzied nationalism, contrasts, absurdities and Wojciech Jagielski has the Caucasus and dramas of contemporary already won acclaim for his Transcaucasian regions, history – he writes about reports on journeys to the a place where a hundred how, in order to save world’s worst trouble spots. small nations, crammed Ingush independence, A Good Place to Die merely in between two seas and Chechnya declared confi rms this reputation. three possessive, rival independence without RIGHTS AVAILABLE: At the time when the clear powers, namely Russia, having its own state, World majority of reporters from Turkey and Iran, wage and about how thanks all over the world were cruel and relentless wars to the war the patients meeting up on the war against each other. in a lunatic asylum in front in former Yugoslavia, The book is full of unusual Chermen began to live the almost alone and unaided descriptions, shocking life of normal people. Jagielski was making images and some Ryszard Kapuściński a dangerous journey astounding data. http://www.znak.com.pl Wojciech Jagielski Scorching the Grass

A masterly story that lingers on one’s mind for long.

About:

From the white farmer’s The whites have handed separate, and descendants mutilated face it is over the power to the of the British separate. impossible to recognize black majority. But not in Reportage writer Wojciech Eugene Terre’Blanche, Terre’Blanche’s hometown. Jagielski’s fl air for RIGHTS SOLD: a man who has inspired The self – appointed observation and superb USA (Seven Stories Press) panic – stricken terror. general is not bound by literary skills change His killers don’t try to run government agreements the here and now of the away. They call the police signed by the traitors. In citizens of Ventersdorp into themselves. They were only Ventersdorp everything has universal story about the meting out justice. to remain in accordance disappointment that every The demented system of with God’s plan. White great social revolution racial segregation is at end. Boers separate, black brings in its wake.

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Jagielski’s writing is Jagielski’s highly detailed Giving the narrative the He provides a commentary a superb continuation, analysis of apartheid shows style of a novel, introducing on what he sees and hears, a perfect development and up the sinister aspects of fi ctional characters and in fabulous, expressive enrichment of everything human nature which on complex dialogues are shorthand. Nor does he that’s best in Polish and the one hand bid one to literary devices that hide his sympathies or European reportage. despise others, and on the Wojciech Jagielski brings antipathies, yet he gives Ryszard Kapuściński other never to forget about into his latest book, the real world priority revenge. It is more a study Scorching the Grass, as he and produces an objective of ideological madness did in his previous one, account. He describes based on an erroneous Th e Night Wanderers. He something that apparently understanding of the stresses that using them happened and is still truths of faith than classic in no way contradicts the happening far away, but it reportage. But the language factual accuracy demanded seems very close by, because of reportage is ideally suited by reportage, but gives the it is rooted in human nature. to this sort of study. author greater freedom and Marta Mizuro Paweł Smoleński makes his story easier for the reader to comprehend. Gazeta Prawna

http://www.znak.com.pl Wojciech Jagielski

Towers of Stone they owe everything and without which they could About: narrative is told through not live, the two fi ghters the lens of two men: face enemy forces—and In Towers of Stone, award- Shamil Basaev, a hero to one another—in protean winning Polish reporter some, a dangerous warlord confl icts that prove hard Wojciech Jagielski brings to others; and Aslan to quell. Viewing the two into focus the tragedy of Maskhadov, a calculating men’s personal story as Chechnya, its inhabitants, and sober politician, who a microcosm of the confl ict and the war being waged is viewed as a providential threatening to devour there by a handful of savior by some of his a land and its peoples, desperate warriors against compatriots and a cowardly Jagielski distills the bitter a powerful and much more opportunist by the rest. history of the region with RIGHTS SOLD: numerous army. Jagielski’s Caught up in a war to which forceful clarity. Italy(Nottetempo) USA (Seven Stories Press) Winner of the Italian Letterature Dal Fronte Prize in 2009.

Praise for the book: miserable corner, and the danger, squalor and misery dreadful damage done to it of daily life in Chechnya Wojciech Jagielski’s book by both outsiders and the with almost unbearable sets new standards for gritty Chechens’ own leaders … clarity. reporting of Russia’s most Th e book brings to life the Th e Economist

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Naval Survive Belize

About: A GROM Soldier’s Tale of a Cut-Throat Training in the Jungle. A true tale from a GROM soldier about how to About the author: survive in the jungle – a hostile environment NAVAL was a soldier of GROM for 14 years. Half of this where a few may hope for time he spent on foreign missions. His courage earned him survival. a number of decorations, including the highest honours awarded in Poland for military service in times of peace. He RIGHTS AVAILABLE: As a GROM special forces also received GROM Golden Badge. His fame came in 2012 soldier, Naval took part when the computer game Medal of Honour. Warfi ghter was World in a number of special released. Naval was one of the two GROM soldiers on whom operations. Patrolling the main character of the game was based. at night the streets of Baghdad, he learnt how it experienced in Belize. of poisonous spiders and feels to always in danger. In the South American snakes, dangerous species But even this could not jungle danger is waiting of plants and mud in which prepare him for what he at every step in the shape you can drown. http://www.znak.com.pl Jacek Hugo-Bader About: Poland’s Himalayan A Long Film About Love: Return mountaineers have to Broad Peak achieved major success with the fi rst winter was the real cause of the ascent of Broad Peak, tragedy? Was it their love but also suffered a major of the mountains? Did they catastrophe. In June and lose their self-preservation July 2013, reporter Jacek instincts? Or was it hubris Hugo-Bader spent several and the desire for success? weeks in the Karakorum A committee formed by Mountains as one of four the Polish Mountaineering members of a Polish Union blames no one but RIGHTS AVAILABLE: expedition that set out to Adam Bielecki for the tragic World fi nd the bodies of the lost outcome of the expedition. mountaineers Tomasz But can one man’s mistake Kowalski and Maciej have been so decisive? Berbeka. Only Kowalski’s What really happened? body was found. Hugo-Bader creates Over 40 000 Polish The four climbers who portraits of the climbers copies sold made the winter assault on and talks to them about Broad Peak wanted to cross their passion. He reveals the boundary of fear. Two of the mystery of high altitude them crossed the boundary mountaineering and of life and death. What introduces us to its magic. 52 NON-FICTION

About the author:

Jacek Hugo-Bader is one of Poland’s top reporters and most widely read authors. He has published three books about countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union (In A Heavenly Valley Amid Greenery, White Fever and Kolyma Diaries). To research his numerous reports on life in contemporary Poland, he has never hesitated to disguise himself if it allows him to gain deeper insight into the lives he is describing. fot. Jacek Hugo-Bader

http://www.znak.com.pl Krzysztof Miller 13 Wars and One. The True Story of a War Correspondent

About: It is hard to imagine how He could have been killed much uncomfortable at any moment because, He crossed the barrier of truths about war criminals unfortunately, bullets tend fear so that others could Krzysztof Miller has to be swifter than a camera learn the truth about war. revealed to the world. He shutter. has witnessed the most The front line often runs important armed confl icts This is a shocking story across a street. Hell begins of the 20th century. He which reveals the cost at just beyond the car behind travelled to Afghanistan, which news is gathered for a RIGHTS AVAILABLE: which the correspondent is Chechnya, Georgia and the newspaper and the high cost World hiding. War is an adventure Congo, and was present of life lived on the edge on for those who are resilient. at numerous revolutions, death. Miller has written his Few can live under constant including those in Rumania confessions in a masculine, stress and threat; few can and Czechoslovakia. blunt manner. His words conquer their fear in order Always with a camera in cannot go by-passed with to experience the true hand, sometimes with the indifference. Let’s fi nd out nature of war. lens aimed at those who whom one has to become to were aiming a rifl e at him. endure the hell of war.

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About the author:

Krzysztof Miller is an award -winning war correspondent. Th is book is a guide to When you fi nish reading He worked in most of the world’s major confl ict zones most of the main political this book silence falls. Not including Afghanistan, Chechnya, Africa, Georgia, Bosnia and military events that a silence that’s self-evident or and Herzegovina. He covered fi rsthand an earthquake have taken place in the full of pathos, but a personal in Iran and The Gentle Revolution in Czechoslovakia. World since 1989. Without kind. Not just in your head, He works for Agencja Gazeta based in Warsaw, which unnecessary conjecture we but shrill and resonant all represents a number of Poland’s most well-renowned and learn about the dramas of around you too. Only after rewarded photographers. the opposing leaders, their reading the whole book does soldiers and the ordinary the reader start to face up to people forced to participate, the reality presented here. or at least to watch as history Oblicza Kultury was being made. Wiadomości Literackie

http://www.znak.com.pl Ryszard Kapuściński A Reporter: Self-portrait

About:

This book was born out of over a hundred interviews correspondents, his the editor’s keen interest with Polish and foreign views on the hardships in Ryszard Kapuściński’s journalists. As she read of writing and the burden writing and a desire to through it, she realised of fame. Out of all the acquaint his readers with that it was a priceless material emerged a book a considerable number of gem, since it included of quotes divided into fi ve interviews published in not only Kapuściński’s chapters devoted, among both Polish and foreign views upon the work of others, to Kapuściński’s press, which reveal more a correspondent, but also travels, his writing process ALL RIGHTS: than his books do. Most an extraordinary tale and the idiosyncrasies of Liepman AG Literary importantly, what kind of about himself, his passion contemporary media. Highly Agency, Zürich person was Kapuściński? for travelling, his unique readable as a concise And how did he happen to method of writing, the autobiography and a kind RIGHTS SOLD: turn his profession into a necessity to risk one’s of guide for aspiring Italy (Feltrinelli) mission and a true passion. life for a good purpose. journalists, it may serve France (Plon) Ryszard Kapuściński The interviews contain either as an introduction Grece (Metainimio) presented Krystyna Kapuściński’s account of to Kapuściński’s writing Ukraine (ECEM Media) Strączek with over 1100 the loneliness and fear or a most valuable new Sweden (Bonniers) pages of text encompassing experienced by foreign perspective on his work.

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Ryszard Kapuściński The Rapid Current of History. Writings on the 20th and 21st Centuries

About:

A collection of Ryszard reportage, or as a point he visited. But it is not Kapuściński’s ruminations of departure for weighing a mere show of erudition. about globalization, in on the richness of our Kapuściński calls on facts history, and specifi c multifaceted modern in oder to interpret them, geographical regions: world. to show historical and ALL RIGHTS: Africa, Latin America, cultural parallels, and to Liepman AG Literary Europe and Russia. The These texts show Ryszard prognosticate. Agency, Zürich book’s selection of texts Kapuściński as not only (from Krystyna Strączek’s and arrangement of the a reporter and writer, they introduction) RIGHTS SOLD: chapters was approved demonstrate his bewildering Italy (Feltrinelli) by Ryszard Kapuściński professional knowledge (after This book is illustrated himself. One can treat all, he was educated as with Kapuściński’s this text as a supplement a historian) about the fate very own previously to his fi rst-rate works of and culture of regions unpublished pictures. http://www.znak.com.pl Beata Nowacka, Zygmunt Ziątek Ryszard Kapuściński. A Writer’s Biography

About: reconstruction of his own whole spectrum of political biography in synch with the events both in Poland and Authored by the literary historical changes, his search abroad, which changed scholars Beata Nowacka and for the compatibility of the the world considerably in Zygmunt Ziątek, researchers new face of the world with the last few decades … I of Kapuściński’s work his own identity. In one of our learned some small details of of many years’ standing, last tape-recorded interviews Ryszard’s life which I hadn’t RIGHTS SOLD: the book is a pioneering with him, the writer said: known before: for example, Spain (Alamut) presentation of the great ‘The reporter changes with the fact that as a twelve- reporter’s oeuvre in its the world. The trajectory of year-old he was an altar entirety. history is identical with that of boy… and where? In general The creative biography of a reporter’s life.’ Berling’s army! I was friends one of the 20th century’s with Ryszard for many years pre-eminent reporters and he never told me that. describes the development Review excerpts: Wojciech Giełżyński, and transformations of his Nowe Książki writing, and also tells the Th e impressive-looking life story of the writer who volume Ryszard Kapuściński. ... in short: a guide to his often made himself the A Writer’s Biography was writing. protagonist of his texts. many years in the making. Justyna Sobolewska, 55 Alongside the analyses of Th e authors present the Polityka Kapuściński’s reportage, the material collected in many authors provide the history unpublished interviews with ... a splendid biography behind every piece, as well Kapuściński. Th ey relate the showing the complicated life as their reception in Poland circumstances of the creation story of a writer, a reporter, and abroad. of his most important works, a man. Full of hereto unknown facts his travels near and far, his Nowa Trybuna Opolska and bits of information experience of war and his freshly unearthed from the native Pińsk. Th e scope of the work and archives, this book is an Bartosz Marzec, Rzeczpospolita its interpretive accuracy are indispensable and unrivalled truly impressive, as is the guide for all interested in Th e authors did an utterly satisfi ed ambition Ryszard Kapuściński’s life impressive work, getting to to “capture the dynamics and work. know more about Ryszard, of Kapuściński’s spiritual his adventures and his growth.” successes than even he Przegląd Polski The authors on their book: himself or his wife Alicja remembered. Every page Our investigation of Ryszard of the book is full of facts; Kapuściński’s work is not the evaluation of his works primarily motivated by is almost always right, as interpretive accuracy. What is the evaluation of him as we aimed to capture was a person, of his beautiful and the dynamics of his spiritual rich life. What’s more, the growth, his attempt at the book is a panorama of the http://www.znak.com.pl Małgorzata Szejnert Building Mountains: Stories from the Polesie Region

Tirelessly searching for About: or simply “locals” – for the traces of the sunken whom a homeland is not Riverine Flotilla of the Building Mountains: Stories about history or politics but Polish Navy, journalist from the Polesie Region simply about one’s place Małgorzata Szejnert offers a fascinating close- in the universe. The author introduces us to Ryszard up of the former “Eastern shows us a world frozen in RIGHTS SOLD: Kapuściński’s native Borderlands” of Poland. It’s time – a world of magnates, Łohvinau (Belarus) land, which he never had a gripping tale about a place of lords and peasants, a chance to describe. She where Poles, Lithuanians, of industrialists and also gives voice to the Belorussians and Jews merchants, of tsaddiks – people who inhabit this once lived side by side, and describes its dramatic region, far from the centres along with the Poleszucy – end. of power, protecting their religions and languages, believing that it’s still possible to salvage what Soviet rule has destroyed.

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Małgorzata Szejnert sets out on a fascinating journey in time and space. It’s hard to believe that her destination isn’t that far away. Building Mountains is the best sort of literature; it gives us a broader perspective on our own history and collective identity. Olga Tokarczuk

Ryszard Kapuściński was planning to write about Polesie, where he was born. So he would be very happy to read this extraordinary book. Alicja Kapuścińska

http://www.znak.com.pl Małgorzata Szejnert Home of the Turtle. Zanzibar

About the author: Praise for the author:

Małgorzata Szejnert is Małogorzata Szejnert is a journalist and reporter. more than just a reporter, She co – founded Poland’s she is a master of the art of leading newspaper Gazeta reportage. Wyborcza, where she Marta Mizuro has headed the features department section for Małgorzata Szejnert has over a decade, educating a special quality, which and training many up- and means that some of the –coming reporters. She was statements she utters turn a fi nalist of the Angelus to stone. Th ese stones 2008 Central European have accumulated to Literary Prize, the Nike form a foundation which Literary Prize in 2008 remains solid to this day. and 2012, and the Gdynia Th us for over twenty years Literary Prize 2008. they have been building the foundation of my own views on reportage. Mariusz Szczygieł NON-FICTION 57

Shortlisted for the Nike Literary Prize in 2012.

About: the most magnifi cent in casemates. And Małgorzata the world, and trails left Szejnert tells the tale of From this tiny island, great by brave travellers and the buildings and their explorers set off for the other colourful characters inhabitants. Thanks to her Continent: David Livingstone, of the past. Here was the penmanship and choice Henry Morton Stanley, birthplace of Farrokh of photographs, Zanzibar Richard Burton. Here were Bulsara, known to the tempts not only by its the largest slave markets, world as Freddie Mercury sights – it is the place where clove plantations and ivory (devout Arabs did not allow the histories of Africa, auctions in the world. the 60th anniversary of the Orient and Europe In the mid ’60’s of the last his birth to be celebrated), interweave. The author century, Zanzibar was and Princess Salme, great writes about the honourable RIGHTS AVAILABLE: shaken by an anti-Arab Sultan Said’s daughter who and dishonourable part World revolution. The country was escaped to Europe and lived played by the white man in ruled by the pro-communist in Bydgoszcz during her the past and draws attention revolutionary party. Today, travels. Here, in the 19th to the new colonisation the island is slowly trying to century, the Polish Romantic of the island – this time build a normal life. poet Henryk Jabłoński acted by moguls of the hotel Zanzibar attracts tourists as French Consul. and tourist industry in through its sunsets, coral History is told by Zanzibar’s agreement with the legal reefs – which are considered houses, palaces and government of Zanzibar. http://www.znak.com.pl near New York City has long Małgorzata Szejnert been called the “gateway to America.” Since late 19th Gateway Island century to the 1950s it was where all immigrants to were convicted for crimes the doctors, nurses, the United States from all or other disgraceful deeds, interpreters and social over the world arrived, in or committed acts of workers, or even chaperons total nearly twelve million immorality,” as well as to who guarded the chastity of people. all those who simply could young girls. Szejnert tells The majority spent just a not afford to travel inland. the story of the Island up few hours there. The less Enormously insightful, to the present day; today fortunate ones, however, the author recreates it hosts the Immigration could be detained for the dramatic lives of the Museum, with most of the over a year, undergoing immigrants, both Polish, staff descending from the RIGHTS AVAILABLE: tedious procedures. Others Jewish, German, Irish and immigrants who arrived on World still were simply turned Italian; she accompanies Ellis Island. away, because, according them under the decks of The book is richly About: to Immigration Law, overloaded ships, during illustrated with unique entrance could be denied lenghty quarantines archive photographs. Małgorzata Szejnert, an to “idiots, the mentally ill, and all sorts of medical For Gateway Island, the outstanding journalist, has the destitute, polygamists, examinations, and describes judges of the Gdynia Literary now turned her attention to people who could become their lot after entering Prize presented Małgorzata Ellis Island. The tiny scrap a public burden, who suffer America. Her main focus, Szejnert with a Separate of land just off the coast from repulsive or dangerous however, are the employees Prize for work that falls contagious diseases, who of the Immigration Offi ce: outside any classifi cation.

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About: Małgorzata Szejnert Awarded the Cogito Literary Prize this outstanding The Black Garden book of reportage shows the history of the Silesia Shortlisted for the Nike Literary Prize in 2008. region where both Polish and German history was shaped. Małgorzata of identity that took place weaknesses and they often Szejnert reconstructs the on a level as small as the won this battle. extraordinary history of that family, as it often happened region through the stories that one brother was of families form a town a Polish patriot while the It is the fi rst time that Polish called Giszowiec. These other was a German army literature pays this kind of RIGHTS SOLD: individual stories are truly offi cer. Szejnert portrays homage to the region and its Germany (Kulturforum) fascinating and can function people who overcame the inhabitants. as excellent background limitations of history and Adam Pomorski, for novels or scenarios. community. They fought a member of the jury Szejnert shows the confl ict stereotypes, their own for the Cogito Prize

Winner of the Cogito Prize 2008 and an Upper Silesian Tacitus Prize 2008. http://www.znak.com.pl Andrzej Szczeklik

About the author:

Professor Andrzej Szczeklik, who died two years ago, is a medical legend. An eminent cardiologist and consultant in internal medicine, honorary member of the British Royal College of Physicians, the Pontifi cal Academy of Sciences, the Polish Academy of Sciences, and winner of numerous prestigious prizez and several honorary doctorates, he is the most frequently quoted Polish scientist in the world, the author of over 600 scientifi c papers and a fundamental text book on internal diseases, Interna Szczeklika (Szczeklik’s Internal Medicine), which has been translated into other languages. Together, his brilliant essayistic books on medicine: Catharsis, Kore and Immortality have sold over 110,000 copies in Poland and have appeared in the U.S.A., Spain, France, Germany, Russia, Hungary and Lithuania. He treated the most eminent Polish writers and artists: Lem, Miłosz, Szymborska, Wajda, Zagajewski and Mrożek. He was also known for playing the piano in the legendary cabaret Piwnica pod Baranami and for his daring skiing. http://www.znak.com.pl Andrzej Szczeklik Immortality

About: The author proved once more the broad perspective of to be an extraordinary writer, universal culture and The main aim of this book combining his humanistic principles. is to attract the reader’s erudition with an expertise in All the dilemmas attention to one of the the exact science. are described in major problems of our a captivating way, entirely times: the question of In Immortality Szczeklik comprehensible to the Immortality. discusses the most common readers. In consequence of the recent research on Speaking of the thin line RIGHTS SOLD: great progress of science, cloning, genomics and the between life and death, Lithuania ( Mintis) immortality seems to be achievements of nuclear Immortality remains a last Hungary (Europa Kiadó) the medicine’s promethean medicine. He contrasts will of the great humanist, dream that fi nally comes them with mythology and who knew that basically, true just in front of our eyes. magical rituals of the ancient there are two kinds of The modern man must Egyptians, Greeks, Aztecs problems in this World: inevitably face this truth, and even Siberian shamans. those that would be solved, whatever the consequences This enables the author to and those that are sure to might be. treat the ethical issues from remain a mystery forever.

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Praise for the author:

Professor Szczeklik is both doctor and humanist, whom artists and poets consider as kindred. Only with one reservation: Szczeklik has the knowledge which none of them have. Th at of microbiology, chemistry and genetics. When he writes about his profession, one may think he is a shaman, since the process of making the right diagnosis eludes one’s thoroughly rational perception. An ancient tradition of the physicians reminds us of how extraordinary this profession is, building a bridge between life and death. Czesław Miłosz

We are in need of a strong and dependable hand that will help us to crack the door of immortality open. Not of that immortality, which is made of our achievements and is doomed to perish. Szczeklik speaks of the immortality, that will stay with us forever. Andrzej Wajda

http://www.znak.com.pl Andrzej Szczeklik Catharsis

About:

This book aims to draw prognosis, which invariably it does mention some attention to issues relating evokes admiration among of the most out standing to illness and pain, which laymen. The author tells us achievements in this fi eld. almost inevitably most how helpless a doctor can The author de scribes of us will be obliged to be and how he sometimes dis cov eries in which he face at some time in our has to grope in the dark for participated or which he lives. It discusses the art an answer. Time and again wit nessed, touches upon RIGHTS SOLD: of medi cine and goes back he re fers us to music and the decline in medical Germany (Herder) to the Platonic notion of poetry, which he justifi es by ethics and tries to vi sual- Hungary (Europa Kiadó) anamnesis; it de scribes stating that medicine and ise the future of medicine World English Rights (Chi- how “constellations” of art spring from the same following the “de coding” cago UP) symptoms, refl ecting the source, i.e. magic. of the human genome se- Russia (NLO) position of the patient, The book does not attempt quence. France (Noir sur Blanc) come to form the diagnosis. to boast about progress in Spain (Acantilado) It also talks about the gift of medical science, although Lithuania (Mintis)

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Praise for Andrzej Szczeklik’s books: I once wrote a line in a poem that went: “I prefer talking to doctors about something else...” In those days I didn’t An eminent Polish physician refl ects on his lifetime know Doctor Andrzej Szczeklik personally, or his book, practice of medicine. Szczeklik weighs in on the ongoing as it hadn’t come into existence yet. Now that I’ve read it, debate about the compatibility of religion and science, I’m convinced that Doctor Szczeklik is not only capable of supporting the view of leading geneticist Francis Collins talking “about something else”, but also of talking “about and rejecting the stance of Richard Dawkins, who THIS”, and he can do it beautifully and fascinatingly. embraces atheism. [Th is medication is] a profound Wisława Szymborska celebration of the human spirit. Kirkus Catharsis is a masterful restoration of the old etymological Drawing on mathematical ideas, physics, music, mythology, links that exist between what is hale and healthy and holy. clinical science, and clinical practice, Szczeklik never forces Andrzej Szczeklik is professor of medicine, but he is also the issues or compels.... He approaches the questions of expert in “the science of the feelings”, which was how pain, suff ering, and death that confront the doctor daily and William Wordsworth defi ned poetry. His book is erudite, that the world regards as ‘terrible, futile, and destructive.’ imaginative, intimate, authoritative; at once a reverie He stresses the immense value of the experienced doctor in about the roots and responsibilities of doctoring, and a helping patients in the loneliness of pain. timely reminder that health care involves caritas before it Times Higher Education Supplement involves the economy. Seamus Heaney Th e general public will enjoy the journey through the mind of this renaissance thinker... Library Journal http://www.znak.com.pl Andrzej Szczeklik Kore

2008 Nike Literary Prize Nominee.

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, RIGHTS SOLD: what is the core of this fi eld of science, and tries to fi nd its Hungary (Europa Kiadó) soul. The book is full of erudite references to literature, Lithuania (Mintis) philosophy, history and arts. Spain (Acantilado) Kore in Greek means ‘girl’, but also ‘pupil’. The Greeks USA (Counterpoint) used to say that you can see your soul in the shape of a tiny girl through the pupil of your eye. How could they have known that the pupil is the only window to the brain? Where is the soul today? What does medicine tell us about the soul? Is medicine looking for soul in itself? Somewhere between life and death, health and illness, science and art, and fi nalny – love. Let her lead the way on our serach for soul. The soul of medicine

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Andrzej Szczeklik Professor Szczeklik in conversation with Jerzy Illg

About:

In his conversations with beloved mountains, but his publisher and friend, also about the medicinal Jerzy Illg, Szczeklik art of Siberian shamans, talks about his childhood, the Egyptian Book of the home, masters and the Dead and the “Promethean RIGHTS AVAILABLE: books which were most dream of medicine” - its World important to him, about achievements and the his placements abroad and awesome prospects of the stages of his career, medical development about his involvement in in regeneration, of Solidarity and repression cloning, stem cells and during martial law, about man’s eternal dream of his meetings with the Pope immortality. and expeditions to his http://www.znak.com.pl Piotr Milewski Japanese Diaries

About:

Author of the best-selling close by, but are they kind live there – despite being The Trans-Siberian: Railway to travellers? hospitable and welcoming, Across Russia and Beyond He chose the most they presented him with an returns with a book about demanding form of travel, enigma. Japan. exploring Japan on his Japanese Diaries is not Milewski arrived in Japan own, without a plan or just a record of events in the Year of the Rabbit. money, by hitchhiking and and encounters, but also The rainy season had just sleeping under the open a story about travelling as begun, and for six weeks sky. such: about the philosophy RIGHTS AVAILABLE: a grey veil of clouds hung He tried to capture the spirit and meaning of it, and also World over the islands. The bitter of the archipelago and to the marks it leaves on the smell of rotting seaweed understand the people who traveller’s consciousness. hung in the air. The Japanese regard this time About the author: of year as a fi fth season, which they call tsuyu, Piotr Milewski is a traveller, writer and photographer. meaning “plum rain”. It’s Born in 1975 in Chełm, he grew up in Opole, and has spent a time when the gods are nine years living in Japan.

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At the perfect pace, rocking Piotr Milewski along like a train, this book tells the history of the The Trans-Siberian: By Railway Across Trans-Siberian railway, while Russia and Beyond also providing a portrait of modern Russia. It reminds Saint Petersburg – Moscow – Irkutsk – Vladivostok. us how the railways changed Travelling on the world’s longest railway line, to the the world, amid protests middle of nowhere. as fi erce as those now prompted by the Internet, About: once a mighty empire, and also that the tsarist a cultural melting pot. empire still aff ects people’s Boundless Russian steppes, Vodka-fuelled, warm and lives from Warsaw to poor Siberian villages, friendly conversations Vladivostok. RIGHTS AVAILABLE: majestic Lake Baikal. with fellow passengers Max Cegielski, World Piotr Milewski takes us on and a real kaleidoscope writer and journalist for a fascinating journey that of characters: veterans TVP Kultura and Radio Roxy turns out to be a journey in celebrating Victory Day, Bestseller – 15 000 time as well. The complex wayward children on Lake Polish copies sold history of the railway’s Baikal, a young Buryat construction is combined shamaness, and an injured here with an astonishing marathon runner working portrait of modern Russia – as a stripper at a night club. http://www.znak.com.pl Aleksandra Gumowska Sex, Betel and Magic: The Sexual Life of Savages One Hundred Years On

About:

The fi rst time she went to the what “the sexual life of remote Trobriand Islands, savages” is like one hundred Aleksandra Gumowska years on. She lived with the felt as if she had ended up family of the tribal chief, inside a black-and-white who regarded her as his photograph by Bronisław adoptive daughter. She went RIGHTS AVAILABLE: Malinowski taken almost to places tourists very rarely World a hundred years ago – except visit, where money is hardly that everything was three- used at all, and the religion dimensional and in colour. imported by missionaries is 2015 - 100 anniversary of She went there to fi nd out mixed with black magic. Bronisław Malinowski ‘s expedition.

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About the author:

„A story about a place at Aleksandra Gumowska has reported for newspaper the end of the world, which supplements Duży Format and Wysokie Obcasy, and now was supposed to be the writes for the weekly Newsweek Polska. Her previous last writer’s destination of subject matter has included the Tamil Tigers, sex in the Ryszard Kapuscinski; fi lled metropolis, Maoists in India, and how she survived being with traveller’s passion ”. hit by lightning. Wojciech Jagielski

http://www.znak.com.pl Róża Thun Róża

About: All because of a sheet of they will only previously paper, she changed Polish have come across in the As a young woman she history. history books. hitchhiked all over Europe. She has become one of A personal, moving and The most important Europe’s most infl uential inspiring book. discussions she had politicians, but still with her father, Jacek remains very much herself. Woźniakowski, were at the From intellectual Krakow kitchen table. to the snowy peaks of She learned English while Nepal, from opposition RIGHTS AVAILABLE: working as a waitress at gatherings in smoke-fi lled World a small B&B in Sussex. rooms to the halls of the With the help of Józef European Parliament, Róża Czapski, she worked out Maria Gräfi n von Thun und Róża destroys all the stereotypes, and proves that it’s how to steal the Louvre’s Hohenstein invites us on possible to combine a woman’s traditional role with a busy fi nest paintings. a tour of the places that professional and public life. Here you have a book about Nepal cast such a strong mean the most to her. In a happy woman going through life with passion and a smile spell on her that she and a light and witty style full of on her face. her family spent several humour, she introduces the Anna Komorowska, Former First Lady of the Polish Republic years living in Kathmandu. reader to events and people

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About the author:

Róża Thun is a European Parliament Member (MEP) from Poland. She was involved in two anti-communist organizations (the Student Committee of Solidarity and the Workers’ Defence Committee) in the People’s Republic of Poland. After the fall of Communism, she was the chairwoman of the Polish Robert Schuman Foundation (1992-2005), a non-governmental organization promoting European integration. Since 2011 she is Vice President of the European Movement International. She received a prestigious prize for the best MEP three times. She is a politician, a traveller, a happy wife and a mother of 4 kids.

http://www.znak.com.pl Children’s66 books

http://www.znak.com.pl Andrzej Maleszka The Magic Tree

A SERIES OF FANTASY ADVENTURE NOVELS FOR CHILDREN AGED FROM 7 TO 12. POLAND’S NUMBER ONE BEST-SELLING CHILDREN’S BOOK. 400 000 COPIES SOLD! IBBY PRIZE FOR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR. RIGHTS SOLD: FRANCE (BAYARD), JAPAN ( KODANSHA), SOUTH KOREA (ALL 5 VOLUMES), CHINA, SERBIA. A FILM AND TV SERIES HAVE BEEN MADĘ BASED ON THE MAGIC TREE, WHICH WON EMMY AWARD. THEY HAVE BEEN SHOWN BY VARIOUS TELEVISION CHANNELS INCLUDING DISNEY CHANNEL. NUMBER OF PLANNED VOLUMES: 7 VOLUME 7: OCTOBER 2015

The key to the novels’ great success is the way they combine magical events with a superb description of real children life. The action involves a cavalcade of unusual magic events, in a real world, familiar to today’s children. The heroes are children aged from seven to fourteen. The Magic Tree books are now the most popular children’s novels in Poland. The starting point is the story of a tree that has magic powers. Without anyone being aware of this, hundreds of objects have been made out of its wood, including furnitures, instruments and toys. Each of these objects has retained a bit of the magic power. One day, a magical Red Chair escapes from a consignment of furniture. Not only can it fl y, it can also carry out the orders of anyone who sits on it. The Red Chair ending up at the home of the Ross family. As well as writing books, Andrzej Maleszka has also directed some excellent fi lms for children. As a result, the novels have a fast-paced narrative, just like modern movies. They also bring up some important topics and show the world from the children’s point of view. The author aims to reduce the distance between the printed and visual media by creating digital illustrations in the books that look like stills from a fi lm. So far Andrzej Maleszka has written six novels in the Magic Tree series, and is now working on the seventh. The Magic Tree series creates a universal world, familiar to children living in various countries and cultures. Each one features the same main characters, but each can be read as a separate story.

http://www.znak.com.pl The Magic Tree. Tale 1. The Red Chair A red chair that can walk and fl y escapes from a consignment of furniture. It also has the power to make the wishes of anyone who sits on it come true. When Kuki sits on the chair and rashly wishes his parents were rich, he sets off a whole landslide of events. His parents change RIGHTS SOLD: into people who are “obsessed with money”. They hand the France (Bayard) children over to a mean aunt and go away to work abroad. Japan (Kodansha) Thanks to the chair’s magic powers, the siblings change Korea (Book Light) their horrible aunt into a little girl, and set off to look for their Serbia (Pro Polis Plus) parents. In the course of their incredible adventures they China (Chongqing Daily travel across Europe. They have seven days to remove the News Group Book spell from their parents and make them into loving parents Publishing LLC) again. The red chair’s magic helps them to get out of lots of Slovenia (Druzina) dangerous situations, but they are being followed by a man Lithuania (Gamles) who is determined to get his hands on it. This novel provided Bulgaria (Enthusiast) the basis for an excellent fi lm which won prizes at the Germany, USA and many others fi lm festivals. It has been shown by various television channels including the Disney Channel.

Book of the Year 2009 (IBBY POLAND)

The Magic Tree. Tale 2. The Mystery of a Bridge Melanie uses the magic red chair to make Philip fall in love with the fi rst girl he sees. Naturally, she is relying on the fact that she’ll be that girl. But Philip looks at a billboard in the street outside, and falls in love with the girl from an advertisement. The trouble is, the girl on the billboard doesn’t really exist – she is just a computerised photo-montage. As she isn’t real, Philip will never be able to meet her, so he starts to fall ill. His younger brother and sister change Philip into RIGHTS SOLD: a miniature version of himself and set off for Venice, Korea (Book Light) where there is a bridge made of magic wood. Anyone Serbia (Pro Polis Plus) who crosses it forgets about being unhappily in love. The children must get over the snow-covered Alps, go through some underground caves and the mysterious canals of Venice. They are accompanied by a mystery cat called Latte and an enchanted robot. They are also being chased by the head of an advertising agency who wants to produce the most incredible advert ever, which will involve drowning Venice in coca-cola. The Secret of the Bridge is rare among children’s novels for discussing the dangers of advertisements that tell lies. It is also an exciting story packed with adventures.

http://www.znak.com.pl The Magic Tree. Tale 3. The Giant Eleven-year-old Kuki has accidentally conjured up a Giant. To defeat it, Kuki is gifted with superhuman strength, but his incredible might causes a great deal of trouble in everyday life. The boy destroys fragile objects, and he cannot hug his mother, pet the dog or kick a ball. He’s just too strong! Kuki and his friends set off for a mysterious hotel in Shanghai, in search of a bed made of magic wood, which is the only thing that can save him. Together the friends travel across Asia, across deserts and oceans, having some incredible adventures on RIGHTS SOLD: the way. Hot on their trail is the Giant, who has seven South Korea (Book Light) different incarnations – he changes into a steel bird that Serbia (Propolis Books) snatches up buses, a shop that’s a trap you can’t leave, or a gigantic snake that devours the light. As he battles with the Giant, Kuki is helped by an extremely intelligent girl called Gabby and a talking dog called Pudding.

The Magic Tree. Tale 4. The Duel Kuki fi nds chess pieces made of the magic tree . He doesn’t know that white pieces create good things while the black ones create things that are bad. Kuki uses a black piece to conjure up his clone, so that he would not have to spend time on boring classes. The clone occurs a bad creature. He gains magic power and starts fi ghting with real Kuki. He creates a giant robot and an army of sharks. In his fi ght he uses storm clouds. On a weird island Kuki, Gabi and Blubek are faced with a dangerous combat. But the greatest danger appears when the clone tries to replace Kuki at his home. RIGHTS SOLD: A contemporary adventure book with a pace of a computer Korea (Book Light) game. And at the same time a wise story on good and evil.

The Magic Tree. Tale 5. The Game Kuki’s clone is back, and is looking for a mysterious gaming die. With the help of the robots who are his slaves, he breaks into the Globo Gallery. Kuki is accused of the break-in, and has to run away from home. He fi nds the gaming die, which has great powers, but drags its possessor into a dangerous game. Kuki, Gabi and Blubek set off to search for the clone. Misguided by a treacherous scorpion, Kuki and his friends are kidnapped and taken to the clone’s underground fortress. There they must conquer gigantic robots, remote-controlled bats and traps set by the scorpion. This expedition is going to involve RIGHTS SOLD: a game that’s not at all easy to win. South Korea (Book Light) A high-speed adventure novel full of startling ideas – as well as bad luck, good fortune and friendship...

http://www.znak.com.pl The Magic Tree. Tale 6. Dragon Shade An incautious spell conjures up a dragon from the depths of the sea, along with a whole army of other monsters. The heroes must battle against them to stop the dragon from casting its shadow on the world. It can only be beaten with the help of a fi gure carved from the magic tree. The fi gure turns into a child gifted with incredible power. But it too has dangerous features... An adventure- packed novel that discusses serious matters. The Tales of the Magic Tree are the basis for a world-famous television series that in 2007 won an Emmy – the TV equivalent of an Oscar – for its imagination, intelligence and humour. RIGHTS AVAILABLE: World

The Magic Tree. Tale 7. World of Giants New adventures lie ahead of you on a trip to the World of Giants with the brave rescue team! The children – Kuki, Gabi, Ida, Blubek and Budyń the speaking dog are transferred to the World of Giants. They have to live among the giants and go to school with their enormous children. They are the only humans in the world where everything is humongous and everyone wants to be even bigger. Our little heroes have to fi ght huge creatures (the powerful Gigun) and their own temptation to become giants. The only way for them to return to their own world is RIGHTS AVAILABLE: to fi nd a mysterious picture puzzle and put all its World pieces together.

http://www.znak.com.pl Wojciech Bonowicz Stories by Nutty Teddy

About:

Nutty Teddy is a great Who would have thought storyteller. that such a little, clumsy His stories are just to bring bear like Nutty Teddy, who pure joy and merriment. can’t even write, is such RIGHTS AVAILABLE: a keen observer! World Wojciech Bonowicz’s latest book is a collection Additionally, the book of sometimes funny, contains the subtle and sometimes sad stories, original illustrations by which in a smart way Bartosz Waglewski – “ encourage to treat the Fisz”. world around us with more understanding and sympathy.

English translation available.

CHILDREN’S 71

About the author:

Wojciech Bonowicz is philosopher Józef Tischner. a poet and journalists. Gdynia Literary Prize The columinist at Tygodnik winner in the category Powszechny. He published of poetry (2007), twice fi ve volumes of his poetry nominated for Nike to date. Author of the Literary Prize (2002 biographical books on the and 2007). eminent Polish priest and

http://www.znak.com.pl Joanna Olech

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).

72 CHILDREN’S

Joanna Olech Pompom the Sink Dragon

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. RIGHTS SOLD: He becomes a talkative and audacious dragon with Slovakia (Slovart) creative, yet sometimes dangerous, ideas which he puts France (Flammarion) 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.

http://www.znak.com.pl Joanna Olech Pompom’s Children

About:

The famous dragon named Pompom 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 RIGHTS SOLD: since their costumes are perfect. Together with their France (Flammarion) human friends they travel to Transylvania to fi nd their relatives. The journey is full of unusual adventures and funny events.

CHILDREN’S 73

Joanna Olech Pompom on Holiday

About: and stuffed it full of nothing the CD of a fairytale but ABSOLUTELY VITAL called “Prince Nutty and Pompom is the dragon who objects. What objects the Spotty Princess”, mysteriously appeared exactly? Hmm... let’s see: which Pompom recorded in the Fis family home a concise Chinese himself (with a little bit of one fi ne day, and is now dictionary (you never know help from his pals in the just like a little brother to who you might meet on neighbourhood); Marina and Tancred. a walk in the woods); Is that all? RIGHTS AVAILABLE: This is his fi rst family a pair of bathing trunks with After a bit of thought, World holiday – and everyone’s got a sweet little duckling sewn Pompom also tossed in: problems, that’s for sure. on the bum; a Harry Potter poster; For him, packing’s a breeze. two boxes of live (!) fi sh a “Wisła Kraków” In only eight minutes, he’s food; supporter’s scarf; and on his marks, all ready to an old stripy woollen sock – some fl ypaper. go. Isn’t that incredible? Pompom’s cuddly toy (no Ready to go! Pompom has buried his way will he go to sleep head in his travelling bag without it):

http://www.znak.com.pl FrankfurtFrankfurt 2015