CONTEMPORARY POLISH  BOOKS

A selection of 18 books in Polish that have garnered critical acclaim and commercial success.

Compiled by:  Izabela Joanna Bozek

Senior Librarian, Greenpoint Branch, Brooklyn Public Library

Chwin, Stefan. Esther.

                                     A beautiful and mysterious woman appears as a governess at the home of  a prosperous family. When she falls ill, no doctor can find a cure. Her illness is a pretext for examining important philosophical issues of the early 20th century.

 Huelle, Paweł. Weiser Dawidek. 

               A 13-year-old Jewish boy, Weiser Dawidek, disappears in Gdansk in 1957. The narrator, one of Dawidek’s boyhood friends, conducts a private investigation into the affair many years later, and his life is changed by the unusual events.

 Libera, Antoni. Madame. 

               A portrait of a young man coming of age in Communist-dominated Poland of the 1960’s. His fascinating and aloof high school French teacher gives him a lesson in freedom, courage and honor. 

Myśliwski, Wiesław. Widnokrąg. 

               A partly autobiographical novel about  life in post World War II Poland. (Winner of the first Nike Award, 1997)

Odojewski, Włodzimierz. Oksana. 

               A terminally-ill scholar escapes from a hospital and goes to Italy. While traveling he experiences the greatest love of his life. 

Tokarczuk, Olga. Dom dzienny, dom nocny. 

                              The protagonist arrives in a small village in the Sudety Mountains. Dreams mix with reality when he meets an old woman who knows everything about the inhabitants—dead and alive.

 POETRY

Barańczak, Stanisław. 159 wierszy, 1968-1988. 

               159 poems by the great Polish scholar, literary critic, translator and poet. His erudite poetry focuses on the political, the ethical and the literary. 

Kielar, Marzanna. Umbra. 

               The 53 verses in this collection by Kielar, who has been called the “Polish Sappho,” are delicate and subtle, articulately describing the inner world of emotions and the outer world of nature. 

Różycki, Tomasz. Wiersze. 

               In these poems, the author recreates a world of anxiety, alienation and sadness from childhood memories and mysteries.

Świetlicki, Marcin. Pieśni profana. 

               A voluntary exile from official culture, Świetlicki is cynical and wry in this cycle of poems, defining and defending the borders of his own world while exposing the falsity of the official culture. 

Wojaczek, Rafał. Wiersze. 

               Poems by a legendary poet of the 1960’s. Wojaczek, a rebellious and scandalous provocateur, here writes of life and death in language which is often brutal and vulgar, yet lyrical.

Zagajewski, Adam. Jechać do Lwowa. 

               In this cycle of poems the poet contemplates the heritage of European culture, while reaching into it for his own roots. The author is concerned not only with the historical world, but with the cosmic world, and the tension between the two.  

NONFICTION / ESSAYS  / MEMOIRS

Głowacki, Janusz. Z głowy.

           A story about life under the Communist regime; writing, moving from Poland to America, becoming famous, and still longing for something left behind. Anecdotes about well-known people enrich these snapshots from New York and Warsaw.

Grynberg, Henryk. Memorbuch.

           This book relates the life of Adam Bromberg, the founder of modern Polish publishing, who was forced to leave Poland in 1968. It simultaneously describes the fate of the Jews who once again were persecuted, this time by the Communists.

Kołakowski, Leszek. Mini-wykłady o maxi-sprawach.

          The author, a distinguished Polish philosopher and winner of the Kluge Prize, presents humorous observations of  aspects of everyday life—travels, fame, debts, and superstitions. 

Krall, Hanna. Zdążyc przed Panem Bogiem. 

               An interview with the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Marek Edelman. The author is the recipient of numerous international literary awards. 

Olczak-Ronikier, Joanna. W ogrodzie pamięci. 

                          An intimate portrait which follows the lives of four generations of the author’s Polish Jewish family. The story is full of tales of bravery as well as comical anecdotes of everyday life. (Winner of the 2002 Nike Award)

Stasiuk, Andrzej. Jadąc do Babadag.

          The author describes his travels through Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania and Moldova, shares with us their beautiful simplicity, and praises their  “uncontaminated civilizations.” (Winner of the 2005 Nike Award)