WydaWnictWo literackie Foreign rights catalogue

2016

Frankfurt

SUPERVISORY BOARD Chairperson Vera Michalski-Hoffmann Tomasz Wardyński Mirosław Zaremba Council Chairperson Anna Zaremba-Michalska

CONTACT INFORMATION

Editor-in-Chief Małgorzata Nycz Head Editorial Secretary Maria Rola Editorial Secretary Krystyna Zaleska Finance Director Dariusz Kurdziel Sales Director Grzegorz Głódkowski PR & Marketing Director Marcin Baniak Foreign Rights Manager Joanna Dąbrowska e-mail: [email protected] Editor Jolanta Korkuć e-mail: [email protected] Editor Paweł Ciemniewski e-mail: [email protected] Address Wydawnictwo Literackie Publishers Co. Ltd ul. Długa 1, 31-147 Kraków NIP: 676-21-16-135 REGON: 357052753 KRS: 0000012638 tel.: +48 (12) 619 27 40 fax: +48 (12) 422 54 23

The Book Institute can help cover the costs of publishing the following types of works: 1) literature – prose, poetry, and dramas; 2) works in the humanities, broadly conceived, whether older or contemporary (with particular regard for books devoted to the culture and literature of Poland); 3) non-fiction literature (literary reportage, biographies, memoirs, essays) 4) historical works (essays and popular history, barring specialist and academic works); 5) literature for children and young people; 6) comics. The financial contribution of the Book Institute is designed to cover the following publication costs: 1) up to 100 % of the translation costs of a work from Polish into another language; 2) up to 100 % of the costs for the purchase of the copyright licenses; 3) up to 50% of the printing costs – only for illustrated books for children and for comics. The latest submission period for the ©Poland Translation Programme begins 1 October and runs until 15 November 2016. The electronic application form will be ready on 1 October 2016. The results will be announced not later than 31 January 2017. The first submission period in 2017 begins 1 February 2017 and runs until 31 March 2017; the results will be announced by 31 August 2017. Contact person: Elżbieta Wojciechowska [email protected]

Wojciech Engelking Anatomy Lesson of Doctor G. Katarzyna Grochola 12 Fated Gaja Grzegorzewska 16 The Concrete Palace 18 Night of Stone Ignacy Karpowicz 22 Sonya Jerzy Pilch 26 Zuza, or: A Time of Growing Distant 28 Beltsville Turkey 30 Portrait of A Young Venetian Girl Krzysztof Piskorski 34 Shadowcarving 36 Forty and Four Olga Tokarczuk 40 Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead 42 The Books of Jacob Szczepan Twardoch 46 Morphin 48 The King  8 The

CONTENTS

TRANSLATION GRANTS AT © POLAND TRANSLATION PROGRAMME

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The ©Poland Translation Programme aims to promote Polish literature and its heritage abroad. The Book Institute financially supports Polish and foreign publishers who would like to publish works of Polish literature outside of Poland in foreign-language translations.

NON-FICTION Andrzej Andrusiewicz A Golden Dream: Russia of the 19th and 20th Centuries Przemysław Czapliński 56 Shifting the Map Anna Janko 60 The Small Annihilation 52

POETRY Ewa Lipska A Palm Line Reader Piotr Matywiecki 68 Which Way Forever Jarosław Mikołajewski 72 The Beggar 64

ABOUT WYDAWNICTWO LITERACKIE

For 63 years we have been inspiring, creating and publishing: exceptional Authors, exceptional books. Founded in 1953, Wydawnictwo Literackie Publishers has been inspiring the most fascinating literary phenomena and publishing the finest names in Polish and world literature for over half a century, including novelists, poets, essayists, historians, and cultural scholars. We are, above all, publishers of literature, particularly of Polish and foreign prose and non‑fiction – including important memoirs, history books, popular science titles, and literature for young people. Among the authors affiliated with WL are Polish and foreign Nobel Prize winners, as well as outstanding, admired, and awardwinning figures from the worlds of culture, literature, and art. We would not, however, be considered one of the most influential on the market if we did not invite the most interesting young and promising writers to work with us, as well as the leading names in popular literature. Wydawnictwo Literackie Publishers means brilliant writers, the foremost figures in culture, and inspiring personalities. PERSONALITIES Wisława Szymborska, Czesław Miłosz, Father Joachim Badeni, Stanisław Barańczak, Władysław Bartoszewski, Zygmunt Bauman, Jan Błoński, Andrzej Bobkowski, Zbigniew Brzeziński, Karl Dedecius, Michał Głowiński, Gustaw Herling­ ‑Grudziński, Józefa Hennelowa, Maria Janion, Stanisław Lem, Henryk Markiewicz, Sławomir Mrożek, Maria Orwid, Wojciech Pszoniak, Tadeusz Różewicz, Tomasz Stańko, Jerzy Stuhr, Dorota Sumińska, Jan Józef Szczepański, Hanna Świda­ ‑Ziemba, Jan Twardowski, Karol Wojtyła, Adam Zamoyski, Antonina Żabińska

POLISH PROSE WRITERS Janusz Anderman, Jacek Dukaj, Jerzy Franczak, Anna Janko, Ignacy Karpowicz, Włodzimierz Kowalewski, Zbigniew Kruszyński, Mikołaj Łoziński, Magdalena Miecznicka, Łukasz Orbitowski, Kazimierz Orłoś, Jerzy Pilch, Marian Pilot, Jerzy Sosnowski, Olga Tokarczuk, Szczepan Twardoch ESSAYISTS, NON-FICTION WRITERS Przemysław Czapliński, Tomasz Fiałkowski, Aleksander Fiut, Tomasz Grzywaczewski, Jerzy Jarzębski, Michał Paweł Markowski, Tadeusz Nyczek, Marian Stala, Jadwiga Staniszkis, Agata Tuszyńska, Teresa Walas, Barbara Włodarczyk, Ewa Woydyłło STARS OF POPULAR LITERATURE Katarzyna Grochola, Marta Fox, Grzegorz Kasdepke, Katarzyna Krenz, Roma Ligocka, Katarzyna Michalak, Jerzy Niemczuk, Katarzyna T. Nowak, Agnieszka Pilaszewska, Dorota Terakowska, Janusz L. Wiśniewski HISTORIANS Andrzej Andrusiewicz, Henryk Batowski, Czesław Brzoza, Andrzej Chwalba, Henryk Ćwięk, Niall Ferguson, Max Hastings, Ryszard Kaczmarek, Kazimierz Krajewski, Jan M. Małecki, Mariusz Markiewicz, Grzegorz Motyka, Andrzej Nowak, Andrzej Paczkowski, Artur Patek, Andrzej Pepłoński, Andrzej Przewoźnik, Anna Reid, Jan Rydel, Douglas Smith, Andrzej Leon Sowa, Stanisław Szczur, Ryszard Terlecki, Janusz Węc, Adam Zamoyski POETS Julia Hartwig, Zbigniew Herbert, Urszula Kozioł, Ewa Lipska, Piotr Matywiecki, Jarosław Mikołajewski, Ewa E. Nowakowska, Czesław Miłosz, Jolanta Stefko, Tadeusz Różewicz, Wisława Szymborska, Halina Poświatowska, Piotr Szewc, Janusz Szuber, Jan Sztaudynger, Adam Zagajewski

FOREIGN WRITERS Margaret Atwood, John Banville, John D. Barrow, Jessie Barton, Walter Benjamin, Hans Georg Berg, Thomas Bernhard, Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Brooks, Andrea Camilleri, Emmanuel Carrere, Eleanor Catton, Julia Child, Lars Saabye Christensen, Rachel Cusk, Kiran Desai, Annie Dillard, Robin Dunbar, Joel Egloff, T.S. Eliot, Anne Enright, Hans Magnus Enzensbergera, Oriana Fallaci, Niall Ferguson, Richard Flanagan, George Friedman, Max Frisch, Anna Gavalda, William Golding, Yaa Gyasi, Sophie Hannah, Tim Harford, Marlon James, Paul Kalanithi, Sue Monk Kidd, Karl Ove Knausgärd, Hedi Kaddour, Eka Kurniawan, Maylis de Kerangal, Asa Larsson, Doris Lessing, Primo Levi, Jonathan Littell, Maja Lunde, Armistead Maupin, Cormac McCarthy, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Alice Munro, Amelie Nothomb, Chigozie Obioma, Orhan Pamuk, Wiktor Pielewin, Sylvia Plath, Thomas Pynchon, Atiq Rahimi, Tom Reiss, Philip Roth, Steve Sem­‑Sandberg, Philippe Segur, Elif Shafak, Morten Stroksnes, Ian Stewart, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Gonçalo M. Tavares, Jurgen Thorvald, Venedict Yerofeyev, Mika Waltari, Virginia Woolf

fot. Jakub Szymczuk

WOJCIECH ENGELKING

Wojciech Engelking (1992) is a journalist and reporter who works with natemat.pl and Kultura Liberalna, author of (delete those which do not apply) (2014), which was considered one of the strongest literary debuts of recent years.

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

WOJCIECH ENGELKING THE ANATOMY LESSON OF DOCTOR D.

KEYNOTE The second novel by a young and highly promising prose writer. Once again, the author delves into the dark parts of the world and the human soul to look into the stores of evil within every person.

LEKCJA ANATOMII DOKTORA D.

SELLING POINTS  A young, touted, and well-received author, one of the most important debuts in recent years.  The author has a vibrant personality, and is quite controversial.  Part of the “young, educated, urban” generation, who also takes aim at his own environment (the “intellectual hipsters of Warsaw”).  A bold book, but also a controversial look into the nature of evil.  An author who often speaks up (in his novels, and also in the media) in major public debates. DESCRIPTION The author’s second novel takes us to a near, though dystopian future in which people can carry out their darkest and most perverse desires. Engelking sees society without rose-tinted glasses – in his pessimistic vision humanity is always showing its worst side. The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor D. takes place in two

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date of publication: 2016 pages: 608

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

time frames. On the one hand, we have the story of Jakub Dejman, a young and very talented doctor, who is nonetheless completely burnt out, both in his private life and his occupation. To cope with the crippling boredom, he buys a Brazilian slave woman, who becomes the subject of his cruel and perverse games. At the same time, we observe the fortunes of Jacob von Deymann, a German aristocrat during World War Two, who eventually receives a post as assistant to Doctor Mengele in Auschwitz. The stories of Dejman and Deymann have more in common than it might seem at first glance… “Some see the book as a bitter morality tale, others as a carefree story about what is timeless in the human soul, and still others as a form of good entertainment (for there is plenty to be had). Despite his tender years (it is downright indecent to write such a mature book at the age of twenty-four), Engelking is a very interesting author – worth picking up The Anatomy Lesson to find out for yourself.” Marcin Fijołek, wSieci TARGET MARKET Lovers of dystopian plots (comparable to Houellebecq). Fans of prose that is quite socially engaged. Readers of historical books, particularly those tied to World War Two, which explore the nature of evil (e.g. Martin Amis). Fans of new, emerging authors.

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

Her most important publications have been: Biting the Worm (1997), Not on Your Life! (2001), Heart on a Sling (2002), I’ll Show You! (2004), The Personality of the Moth (2005), I Told You So! (2006), The Green Door (2010), The Embroidery (2011), and Houston, We Have a Problem! (2012)

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

fot. Jacek Kołodziejski

KATARZYNA GROCHOLA

Katarzyna Grochola (1957) is a writer, a columnist, one of Poland’s most frequently read authors. She dreamed of writing since childhood, but before she became a writer for good, she dabbled in various professions – she worked as a nurse, a teacher, and a storehouse worker. She spent many years working with women’s magazines, where she ran a column and responded to readers’ letters. She also wrote articles like “Sex with a Plumber.” In 1997 she made her debut with the novel Biting the Worm, which radically changed her life. Her following novel, Not on Your Life! (2001) was filmed three years later to great success, as was her fourth book, I’ll Show You! Grochola combines a charmingly light style, a depth of approach to human problems and sufferings, and humor and literary finesse; this has won her millions of faithful readers in Poland. She has been translated into many languages, including German, Russian, Hungarian, Czech, Italian, and Vietnamese. She lives outside of Warsaw in a little house she built herself.

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

KEYNOTE The mistress of Polish prose and Poland’s most avidly read female writer is back in a new and incredible way. Fated is an entirely new kind of dramatic novel.

KATARZYNA GROCHOLA FATED

SELLING POINTS  Katarzyna Grochola is one of the most frequently bought and read authors in Poland.  An emotionally gripping and suspenseful tale of people who long for happiness in their lives.  Mainstream prose lifted to a remarkably ambitious literary level.  Grochola has repeatedly proven that her prose is ideal material for film adaptations.  Although the action takes place in Poland, Grochola always creates very universal tales of human desires and sufferings, comprehensible in any hemisphere of the world.

PRZEZNACZENI

DESCRIPTION The protagonists of Fated are four strangers to each other. Each is busy with his or her own life and problems – but it swiftly turns out that their fates are inextricably linked. A series of accidents and coincidences turns these four worlds upside-down. Only Grochola can tell such masterfully complicated

stories and build such convincing and profound psychological portraits. Among these vividly drawn characters we have a teetotaller who falls into the clutches of gambling, a talented writer who has spent years in an unhappy relationship with a married man, a female croupier disgusted with people and the world, and a young, womanizing bachelor who is bored and contemptuous of his life. We observe their mistakes, their imperfections, their dreams, and their painful coming to terms with reality. We trace these isolated stories, which intersect at the climax, at the dramatic finale, in which practically everyone’s lives intersect: some will lose their lives, other will survive. Some will be given a chance for a happy future by fate, while for others this chance will be irretrievably lost… TARGET MARKET Readers of ambitious mainstream prose (Franzen, Schmitt, Hanya). Lovers of sprawling family sagas written with verve. Fans of slightly feminist prose.

160 00 copie 0 s sold

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date of publication: 2016 pages: 544

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

GAJA GRZEGORZEWSKA

Gaja Grzegorzewska (1980) is a writer, critic, and journalist. She is a film scholar by education, which explains her novels’ extraordinary knack for images. She made her debut in 2006 with The Reaper, whereafter she was declared the rising star of the Polish detective novel; she swiftly proved, however, that genre prose was decidedly too constraining. In 2011 she received the High Caliber award. She practices capoeira.

fot. Jacek Kołodziejski

Her major publications have been: The Reaper (2006), From Thursday Night to Sunday (2007), The Drowner (2010), The Tomb (2012), and The Concrete Palace (2014).

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

GAJA GRZEGORZEWSKA THE CONCRETE PALACE

KEYNOTE A dark detective novel by the Polish Chandler in a skirt, Gaja Grzegorzewska – the hottest name in Polish crime fiction. SELLING POINTS  The youngest and most promising Polish author of detective novels.  Winner of the prestigious High Caliber Award for best detective novel of the year.  The Krakow criminal underworld as you’ve never seen it before.  A book that caused a storm among critics and readers.

BETONOWY PAŁAC

DESCRIPTION An intellectual with a pathological past and woman who would prefer to forget what once happened. The new “boss” of a housing estate and a serial killer who went one step too far. They are all tied up in an investigation that swiftly becomes a hunt, leading to the grimmest parts of the city and the darkest corners of the human psyche. When the Professor returns from his hometown, he has no intention of returning to the criminal underworld from which he broke free two years previous. The city is also much calmer than it had been before his escape, when the sadistic King ruled the housing estate.

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date of publication: 2014 pages: 300

The atmosphere is not even spoiled by the appearance of a thirteen-yearold prostitute who – impossible to say when – moved into his apartment, and the increasing reports of the brutally butchered victims of a serial murderer. However, with the disappearance of Sophie, the wife of the Caretaker, the new housing estate administrator, the Professor’s shady past swiftly flushes to the surface. As does the phantom of his exlover, to whom he is linked by significantly more… Together they begin a search that their lives will depend upon. The Concrete Palace to is the boldest of all the novels written by this High Caliber Award winner – a crime and detective novel and a psychological thriller rolled into one. “The language of Gaja Grzegorzewska’s The Concrete Palace is not the slightest bit dry, and it has a gender. It is clearly masculine. Moreover, it has a style: grotesque, fun, rakishly vulgar. This is already a lot – but we also have intricate suspense.” Piotr Kofta, Wprost

This is a world we would rather not see, but which is so fascinating that it is hard to resist. Real masculine prose, tough as nails, yet dazzling and intriguing. A dark book, but with finesse.” Magdalena Cielecka, actress “Grzegorzewska has her reasons for pushing the envelope – this is not a novel about the struggle between good and evil, it is about shame. This makes its protagonists vulnerable to pain and humiliation. The question is: Must we get rid of our shame? This world Grzegorzewska has built is consistent and compelling.” Justyna Sobolewska, Polityka TARGET MARKET Lovers of detective novels, thrillers, tales of suspense.

opies 9 000 c sold

“More raw than ever before – this is Gaja Grzegorzewska’s basic principle in her latest crime story. This is no-holdsbarred action for lovers of the genre… The Concrete Palace is perhaps Poland’s answer to Pulp Fiction, a web of criminal suspense and keen observations of the city of Krakow.” Jacek Wakar, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna “She treats her characters like an actor does his roles. Most recently she was a man. With her latest novel, Gaja Grzegorzewska enters the detective novel canon.” Elle

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“A remarkably cinematic novel. As I was reading it I got the impression that I was watching a tough masculine film that was provocative and, at times, terrifying. I dream of getting a script like that.

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

Keynote One of Poland’s most important young writers returns with the darkest detective novel of her career, and one that eludes all genre definitions.

KAMIENNA NOC

GAJA GRZEGORZEWSKA NIGHT OF STONE

Selling Points  One of the youngest and most promising writers of detective novels in Poland.  Her novels are highly lauded by the critics and readers for their literary merits as well: she has been compared to the biggest names in contemporary Polish literature.  Winner of the very prestigious High Caliber award for best detective novel of 2011.  A highly visual and meticulously realistic description of a dark world of licentious crimes.  A novel full of controversial and taboo subjects, such as incestuous love.  Charismatic and unusual protagonists – particularly the character of private detective Julia Dobrowolska, who appears in all of the author’s novels to date.  A remarkable ear for language and a very original writing style. Description Gaja Grzegorzewska has accustomed her loyal readers to searching in vain for

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date of publication: 2016 pages: 436

optimism and positivity in her novels. This time, however, she has outdone herself – her latest novel is a journey into the darkest of pits. The Professor and Detective Julia Dobrowolska, a pair of protagonists already familiar to longtime readers, now set off on a remarkable journey through Europe, fleeing the public scorn that pursued them in their hometown of Krakow for the incestuous love they share. Meanwhile, some dark shadows return from the past – Julia tries to solve the mystery of the brutal rape and murder of a little girl. The novel is full of twists and turns, but also plays on genre conventions, all in addition to its complex construction and literary virtuosity – in sum, Gaja Grzegorzewska is in top form.

twists (e.g. Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Identity). Readers who liked the character of Kurt Wallander (from Henning Mankell’s series) will certainly enjoy Julia Dobrowolska, a staple in all of Grzegorzewska’s novels. Grzegorzewska’s books draw from the finest traditions of mysteries and thrillers – she borrows heavily from Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler, using them with a finesse worthy of Tarantino. Lovers of Paula Hawkins’ Girl on the Train.

Over 8 000 sold copies

“Gaja Grzegorzewska is a writer of mystery novels? More than that. Her latest book, Night of Stone, proves that these boundaries have been crossed in many respects.” Marcin Wilk, Gazeta Wyborcza “Grzegorzewska takes an uncompromising approach to taboo subjects. And although the tales she spins are in ironic inverted commas, woven with a web of intertextual pop-culture and genre literature references that slightly neutralize the horror, from one novel to the next the author appears to follow her protagonists a step further into the darkness. Night of Stone is another step forward, though it still comes with a twisted sort of happy ending.” Robert Ostaszewski, Książki. Magazyn do czytania “Gaja Grzegorzewska has written a novel that allures and hypnotizes. She doesn’t give the reader a moment’s rest, she forces him or her to take part.” Małgorzata Matuszewska, Gazeta Wrocławska

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TARGET MARKET Fans of thrillers with complex constructions and unpredictable plot

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

IGNACY KARPOWICZ

Ignacy Karpowicz (b. 1976) is one of Poland’s most interesting contemporary writers. He has written several novels (Lame, Miracle, Gestures, Ballads and Romances, Fish Bones, Sonia), he won the Polityka Passport in 2010 for his novel Ballads and Romances, and was earlier nominated for the same award for Lame (2006). He has received three nominations for the prestigious NIKE Literary Award for Gestures (2009), Ballads and Romances (2011), and Fish Bones (2014). He has been a columnist for Charaktery, Polityka, and Dziennik Opinii magazines, and a reviewer for Gazeta Wyborcza.

Books by the author in the Wydawnictwo Literackie Publishers catalogue Novels Offbeat (first edition 2006, re-edition 2013) The Miracle (first edition 2007, re-edition 2013) Gestures (2008) Balladynas and Romances (2010) Fish Bones (2013) Sonya (2014)

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

fot. Wojciech Wojtkielewicz

Outstanding awards and distinctions Nomination for the “Polityka” Passport for Niehalo „Polityka” Passport for Balladynas and Romances Nominated for the NIKE Award for Gestures Nominated for the NIKE Award for Balladynas and Romances Nominated for the NIKE Award for Fish Bones Winner of Readers’ Choice NIKE 2014 Awards for Fish Bones Shortlisted for the NIKE Award for Sonya

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

IGNACY KARPOWICZ SONYA

Keynote Sonya – beautiful and crippled, good and bad, a healer and cursed – tells a story of desire and forbidden love, powerful and inconceivable, of feeling in spite of and against the odds, feeling which cannot be saved. Selling points  Three times nominated for the prestigious NIKE Literary Award  Winner of the Polityka Passport 2012  One of the most admired Polish writers of the younger generation  Shortlisted for the NIKE Award

30 000 copie sold s

Description A messenger, a Mal’ak, an angel of death has come to hear the tales of Sonya’s life: a story of a bloody rag and of an old dog in a collar with Gothic letters, of the greatest of wars, of hatred and humiliation. But above all, a story of desire and forbidden love, powerful, inconceivable, transcending language and the world. Of the love of a beautiful girl for an invader in a black uniform.

SOŃKA

Sonya is a great yet intimate, simple yet difficult, subdued yet highly emotional, pacifist yet brutal story filled with love. The author uses the convention of the wartime romance to speak of “times past”

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date of publication: 2014 pages: 208 right sold: Belarus (Literaturny Dom Lovhinau), Bulgaria (Matcom), France (Noir sur Blanc), Germany (Berlin Verlag), Macedonia (Begemot), Romania (Lider), Ukraine (Komora), US/UK (Dalkey Archive Press)

and “now”; of “here” and “there”; of the hell and paradise of memory. Ignacy Karpowicz has another surprise in store for us, delighting us more than ever, and proving that, following the successes of his previous books, he has entered the literary super leagues to stay. “Karpowicz’s brilliant idea is constantly confronting the protagonists with foreignness and the inexpressibility of experience. As always in Karpowicz, everything is in inverted commas, touched with irony and self-effacement, lined with a fear of immediacy, sentimentality, or stating the obvious. As such, we trust Sonya, and we also approach it with suspicion – which is just what Ignacy Karpowicz would like us to do.” Dariusz Nowacki, a review from the Book Institute web site “As we know, Karpowicz creates perhaps the best female figures in contemporary prose. And when Sonya speaks of love and death, Karpowicz delves into tones he has never before tapped into. There appears a sort of lyricism that takes you by the throat, without being kitsch.” Justyna Sobolewska, Polityka “Sonya’s malicious mastery is in its weave of melodramatic illusion and cynical delusion. This novel is a trap.” Przemysław Czapliński, Gazeta Wyborcza “Sonya is a book that can fascinate. Karpowicz has, after all, a remarkable gift – the gift of being able to tell intriguing stories that crackle with sharp observations.” Andrzej Horubała, Do rzeczy

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

Target market Lovers of the work of Ignacy Karpowicz, readers of ambitious contemporary prose.

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

His most important publications have been: Confessions of a Writer of Illicit Erotica (1989), A List of Infidelities (1993), A Thousand Peaceful Cities (1997), Lefthandedness Irreversibly Lost (1998), The Mighty Angel (2000), My First Suicide (2006), and Many Demons (2013).

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

fot. Jacek Poremba

JERZY PILCH

Jerzy Pilch (1952) is a prose writer and journalist, one of Poland’s most read contemporary authors. He has received all of the most important Polish literary awards (including the most important, the Nike Award), he has been translated into over a dozen languages all around the world, and his books have been successfully adapted to the big screen (most recently with The Mighty Angel, directed by Wojciech Samrzowski, one of Poland’s top filmmakers). Jerzy Pilch has achieved the status of cult writer within his own lifetime – his books sell in record quantities and are hotly anticipated by legions of faithful fans. He chiefly owes his success to his remarkably original style, marked by a light but pointed phrase, a dose of the piquant, and an inimitable, ironic distance from the world. Pilch comes from Wisła – a small town in southern Poland, inhabited by a Lutheran minority. As a (non-practicing) Protestant in a Catholic country he inevitably occupies a unique position – an ideal standpoint for observing both Poland and his own life. Another trademark of his prose is the autobiographical – his books obsessively return to several themes from his life (particularly from childhood), but also to some difficult and sensitive questions tied to Parkinson’s disease and alcoholism. All this means that every new book he releases becomes an important event in Polish literature even before its premiere.

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Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

JERZY PILCH ZUZA, OR: A TIME OF GROWING DISTANT

Keynote Pilch is back on his favorite turf – humor, ironic wisdom, and eroticism in a novel about love and growing old, written in his inimitable style.

ZUZA ALBO CZAS ODDALENIA

Selling points  One of Poland’s best and most influential contemporary writers.  Winner of many prestigious awards and distinctions.  Every one of Pilch’s novels has a wide resonance and is a front runner for the most important literary awards.  Legions of devoted fans ensure Pilch’s novels a high position on the bestseller lists. Description Old age and the erotic, sanctity and sin – as well as the famous Pilch irony – in the latest novel by one of Poland’s most famous contemporary writers. An aging writer speaks of the women of his life, and above all, of the last one – the Zuza of the title, a prostitute forty years younger than him, who is the object of his insane adoration. As ever in Pilch’s work, autobiography melds with fiction in proportions impossible to unravel, while the intimate, first-person narrative allows for the

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date of publication: 2015 pages: 136 Rights sold: Russia (Inostrannaya Literatura)

liberal interjection of digressions, jokes, and biblical reflections. Under the guise of a sense of humor, in the style that has won him millions of admirers and many awards, the writer concocts a tale of the passing of time, of women, and above all, of love – albeit sometimes hobbling, awkward, and open to mockery. Zuza or: A Time of Growing Distant is another book that shows the mastery of Jerzy Pilch in combining irony and seriousness, as well as an original and bold look at the author’s world. You won’t be able to put it down! “In his latest novel, Zuza, or: A Time of Drifting Away, Jerzy Pilch brilliantly strikes a balance between truth and fiction in every paragraph. A remarkable synthesis: it is ostentatious invention, and yet the most autobiographical work in his oeuvre.” Dariusz Nowacki, Gazeta Wyborcza “This is Jerzy Pilch as you have never seen him before, even if you have carefully read Other Delights and his other books on his erotic fascinations, states of enamorment, and love. More than ever before, this protagonist of Pilch’s is defenseless, yearning, open, and painfully lonely. This remains true when he veils his thoughts with irony. In this story about a mature, ailing man’s dreams of pairing up with a young and vivacious woman, the longing to begin life all over is crucial. The fact that she is a prostitute is less important to the narrator than the heat ‘which suggests that everything might change any minute now’.” Marta Strzelecka, Pani

the difficult road in reconciling the two.” Jarosław Czechowicz, Krytycznym Okiem blog “Readers of this scandalous and provocative autobiographical story of the love between an old man and a prostitute become, by the book’s end, readers of a parable, veiled and enveloped by this short, but dense and polymorphous novel. At the end we perceive that the writer has played us wisely, when we see that parallel to his masterful use of language, gestures and expressions, this sad and bizarre prose has transformed into a Lutheran morality tale, a secular sermon.” Ryszard Koziołek, Tygodnik Powszechny “Love idealizes its subject. I do not describe what I am calling love in too much detail, it suffices that I focus on the delight. There is no love without delight – but delight can exist without love.” Jerzy Pilch Target market Lovers of Pilch’s prose. Readers of contemporary dramatic and romantic literature. Readers who follow the nominees for the most important literary awards.

“Zuza, or: A Time of Drifting Away maintains the classic, core, Pilchian prose, with all its trademark features and the familiar rhythm of the sentences.” Kazimiera Szczuka “This is a little book about big issues, concerning a time which we seldom consider in life. It is about emotional intensity in the face of nothingness. And

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KEYNOTE A collection of short stories by a master of Polish prose – a classic figure of Polish literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in one volume.

INDYK Z BELLTSVILLE

JERZY PILCH BELTSVILLE TURKEY

SELLING POINTS  The most read Polish prose writer.  The winner of many prestigious awards, including the Nike Award.  Translated into over a dozen languages.  His novel A Thousand Peaceful Cities found its way onto the list of the best novels published in the USA in 2010 according to the prestigious industry magazine Kirkus Reviews.  The volumes that originally contained these short stories (Confessions of a Writer of Illicit Erotica, 1989; Lefthandedness Irreversibly Lost, 1998; My First Suicide, 2006) – were nominated for and honored with important and prestigious awards (the Kościelski Prize, the Polityka Passport, Nike nominations).  Pilch is considered a master of the short story.  This volume presents a remarkable overview of over two decades of his work  The ideal volume for a first experience with Pilch’s work, and a treat for the longtime fans

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date of publication: 2016 pages: 780

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DESCRIPTION Jerzy Pilch is chiefly know to wider audiences as a novelist, but his work has included a large number of short stories. Pilch began publishing in 1989 with a collection that was lauded by the critics, Confessions of a Writer of Illicit Erotica, for which he received the prestigious Kościelski Award. The present volume also includes texts from later years, making it a remarkable cross-section of one of Poland’s most important prose stylists. The Pilch of the short stories is somewhat different from the Pilch of the novels. In these shorter forms the phrases need to be more pointed, and the structure more condensed. In a way rarely found in the literary world, Pilch deftly shifts from the raconteur style of the novel to the precision of the short story. And remarkably, at no point do we forget that we are dealing with the same genius of the dazzling sentence who brought us A Thousand Peaceful Cities and The Mighty Angel. Collected Short Stories is a compulsory read, and not only for those who are already rabid fans of Pilch’s prose. TARGET MARKET Lovers of masculine prose (Franzen, Roth, Bukowski, Hemingway). Has drawn comparison to the most outstanding figures in contemporary American prose (Paul Auster, Don DeLillo). People who already admire Pilch’s prose. Fans of autobiographical prose with erotic passages that push the envelope (Llosa). Lovers of original short stories with powerful endings (Keret).

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JERZY PILCH PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG VENETIAN GIRL

KEYNOTE An autobiographical novel by Poland’s greatest prose stylist, in which he eases his conscience and sums up his amorous and erotic conquests. A Don Giovanni for the twenty-first century.

PORTRET MŁODEJ WENECJANKI

SELLING POINTS  The most read Polish prose writer.  The winner of many prestigious awards, including the Nike Award .  An autobiographical novel – the shocking, often controversial confessions of the “biggest womanizer” in Polish literature.  Translated into several languages.  His novel A Thousand Peaceful Cities found its way onto the list of the best novels published in the USA in 2010 according to the prestigious industry magazine Kirkus Reviews. DESCRIPTION As a total writer, Jerzy Pilch knows how to turn any subject into great literature. There are a few subjects, however, on which he has achieved mastery on a world scale. In addition to alcohol, football, and Wisła, his hometown, love is one such theme. Jerzy Pilch, regarded as the “biggest womanizer” in Polish literature, is back with some brilliant autobiographical

prose, in which he sums up his love life and erotic experiences. Among the dozens of women to have appeared in the writer’s life, one was truly exceptional. The Venetian girl of the title – a woman whose beauty was reminiscent of Dürer’s masterpiece – was met by accident during a book reading; she managed to break the monotony and routine in the life of this twenty-first century Don Giovanni. How did this occur? Why did she turn out to be so extraordinary? And how did Pilch’s most spectacular (and consequential) romance conclude? The answers to these questions, of course, are best sought in the literature. TARGET MARKET Lovers of masculine prose (Franzen, Roth, Bukowski, Hemingway). Has drawn comparison to the most outstanding figures in contemporary American prose (Paul Auster, Don DeLillo). People who already admire Pilch’s prose. Fans of autobiographical prose with erotic passages that push the envelope (Llosa).

FICTION

date of publication: forthcoming in 2017 pages: t/c

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KRZYSZTOF PISKORSKI

fot. Agnieszka Sobczak-Piskorska

Krzysztof Piskorski is a writer, journalist, translator, and creator of fantasy games. He made his debut with the Tale of the Sands trilogy, and later published A Handbook of Urban Oddities. His novels Splinter and Time’s Edge brought him two nominations for Janusz Zajdl Awards, the most important distinction in Polish fantasy writing, and for the Jerzy Żuławski Award. In 2009 Eurocon gave him the European Science Fiction Association Award for most promising young writer. In 2013 he published the novel Shadowcarving, which brought him the Janusz Zajdl Award (2014), as well as the Gold Distinction of the Jerzy Żuławski Award. Piskorski’s stories have been published in the most important sciencefiction literature magazines: Science Fiction, Magazyn Fantastyczny, and Nowa Fantastyka, as well as in the anthologies The Book of War, The Book of Fear, and The Voice of Lem.

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KRZYSZTOF PISKORSKI SHADOWCARVING

Keynote A troublemaker and a world full of conspiracies – a novel full of astonishing adventures and absurd events by one of the most interesting authors of the younger generation Selling points  The winner of many awards and distinctions  A winner of the prestigious ESFS Encouragement Award for the most promising writers in Europe  A novel by one of the most promising writers of Polish fantasy

CIENIORYT

Description Inspired by swashbuckling literature, the Three Musketeers, Arturo Perez‑Reverte’s series and South American literature, this is a novel about a troublemaking cavalier, a hired swordsman who is drawn into a multi-layered conspiracy. The action takes place in a world that recalls Baroque Spain, where the sun is no ordinary ball of fire, it is a mystical being, and the shadows play a vital role in everyday life in the complex Baroque culture. The ruler of the land is an absolute monarch, a Sun King, and the action picks up when a certain philosopher constructs

a camera obscura, and then begins showing projections of various objects and figures in public, using the sunlight. In these projections the King is portrayed as the ideal essence, so beautiful and noble that few can stand to look at him. The scholars hold heated discussions as to what this might mean, but a theory quickly emerges that in reality this projection is the royal antithesis. This would mean that the King is in fact evil and rotten. Ultimately the inventor is forced to escape, starting an avalanche of conspiracies in which the protagonist is swiftly embroiled… “Krzysztof Piskorski has shown himself to be an able raconteur, who skillfully moves between the worlds he ingeniously creates.” Rafał „Capricornus” Śliwak, Książki Polter.pl Target market Readers of contemporary prose, adventure literature, thrillers, and fantasy

FICTION

date of publication: 2013 pages: 500

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KRZYSZTOF PISKORSKI FORTY AND FOUR

Keynote The latest novel by Poland’s most important science-fiction writer of the younger generation. An alternate history of nineteenth-century Europe, whose fate was changed by unexpected technological advances and foreign invasions.

CZTERDZIEŚCI I CZTERY

Selling Points  A young and very ambitious author who has received several of the most important awards in the industry (for science-fiction and fantasy writers).  Numerous references to the history and culture of Western Europe (Byron appears, among others), as well as Polish elements that are interestingly woven into the plot.  An alternate European reality constructed with enormous precision and gusto – there is great pleasure in the simple act of discovering the various elements of the world in the novel.  To understand the reality of this novel you need no detailed knowledge of the history of Poland and Europe, though a reader who has this knowledge will find added nuances and treats.

from history books. During the November Uprising (1830), which played a key role in Polish history, there is a sudden intervention by insectoid creatures from another dimension – this event changes the course of history, not only for Poland, but in all of Europe. This is a novel that takes place in a world that only seems like the one we know from history, composed around political and spy intrigues. Advised by Juliusz Słowacki, one of the most important figures in Polish history and culture, Eliza Żmijewska sets off for London to find a traitor who will probably cause the collapse of the Uprising – yet it soon turns out that the truth is far more complex. Along the way, Eliza meets such figures as Lord Byron and the severed, though living head of Thomas Mitchell. This Europe altered by contact with an otherworldly civilization has never been so fascinating – or so dangerous! Target Market Fans of prose by Jacek Dukaj and Philip K. Dick. Lovers of alternate histories of the world. Readers of “new weird” literature.

Description Piskorski’s novel gives us a vision of the nineteenth-century history of Europe which is quite unlike the one we know

FICTION

date of publication: 2016 pages: 548

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OLGA TOKARCZUK

Olga Tokarczuk (b. 1962) is the bestselling author of six previous novels (The Journey of the People of the Book, Prawiek and Other Times, E.E., House of Day, House of Night, Final Stories and Anna in the Catacombs) and two sets of short stories (The Cupboard and Playing Many Drums). Her books have won several major prizes in Poland and abroad, and have been trans­ lated into a dozen languages. Notably, the English-language edition of House of Day, House of Night (Granta, 2002), was shortlisted for the IMPAC Literary Award. AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS Polish Book Publishers’ Association Award Kościelski Foundation Award Nike Award – three-times winner of readers’ choice award Nike Literary Award for the novel Runners Nominated for the ANGELUS Central European Literary Award for the novel Runners The Nike Award 2015 winner for the Books of Jacob

BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR AVAILABLE FROM WYDAWNICTWO LITERACKIE PUBLISHERS Novels House of Day, House of Night Final Stories Prawiek and Other Times Anna in the Catacombs E.E. Runners Guide Your Plow Through the Bones of the Dead The Books of Jacob Short Story Collections The Cupboard Playing Many Drum Other The Doll and the Pearl

ONE OF POLAND’S MOST OUTSTANDING WRITERS WINNER OF MANY PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS

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fot. Jacek Kołodziejski

FOREIGN LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS Armenia, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, The Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, UK, US, Turkey

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PROWADŹ SWÓJ PŁUG PRZEZ KOŚCI UMARŁYCH

OLGA TOKARCZUK GUIDE YOUR PLOW THROUGH THE BONES OF THE DEAD

The main protagonist is Janina Duszejko – once a bridge engineer, today making ends meet in a school in Kotlina Kłodzka teaching the English language and geography and taking care of summer homes in the wintertime. Her passion is astrology, and above all she loves animals. When they get hurt she intervenes with the police, and scolds people who understand the role of animals differently than she does. She warns against thoughtless damage to nature. She sees people’s fates as written in the stars. In her free time she reads William Blake, translated by her friend Dyzio, and makes friends with animals, whom she often helps out.

Duszejko knows more than anyone else, however, because she knows how to read the stars… A cutting-edge novel that expands our vision of the world, keeping the reader in suspense till the very last page. This novel might be called a moral thriller. The book will be supplied with illustrations by the cult Czech musician, filmmaker and comic-book artist Jaromir!

film rights sold

One day she discovers that her neighbor is dead, and then about another murder, and another… First a poacher, then a commander, then a chairman… Duszejko abandons the police and tries to find out what has happened. Using her knowledge of astrology, she develops her own theory: the animals are taking their revenge on the people. The police ignore her, considering her a harmless madwoman. Meanwhile, more people are dying. Each time, the only silent witnesses to these murders are animals.

FICTION

date of publication: 1996 pages: 300 Rights sold: Bulgaria (Panorama+), Croatia (Ljevak), Czech Republic (Host), Denmark (Tiderne Skifter), Egypt (Sphinx Agency), France (Noir sur Blanc), Germany (Schöffling), Italy (Nottetempo), Mexico (Oceano), Serbia (Kulturni Centar No­vog Sada), Spain (Siruela), Sweden (Ariel), Turkey (Dedalus), Ukraine (Urbino)

ENGLISHE SAMPL ION AT TRANSL A B L E AVAIL

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OLGA TOKARCZUK THE BOOKS OF JACOB

Keynote A universal, true story of the unprecedented rebellion exacted by Jacob Frank, falling into everybody’s disfavour… A great journey across seven borders, five languages and three major religions, not counting the small ones. Related through the dead, with the author filling in the gaps. Enchanting and unsettling.

KSIĘGI JAKUBOWE

Selling points  The latest book by one of the most acclaimed Polish writers worldwide.  Each of her books has become a bestseller, and The Books of Jacob has gone down a storm.  Author nominated for the Angelus Central European Literature Award.  The recipient of many prestigious awards and prizes.  Winner of the Nike Literary Award 2015. Description The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on the eve of the partitions. A multicultural, multi-ethnic land closer to Istanbul than to Paris, and a man from nowhere who will change the fate of thousands of people. A great journey from peasant cottages, via aristocratic manors, to imperial chambers. Mid-18th century, Podolia. It is here that Father Benedykt Chmielowski is trying to

describe the whole world in his huge book, and that, at the house of the castellan’s wife Katarzyna Kossakowska, influential people meet, who will influence many people’s lives. It is also here, at Elisha Schorr’s house, that Jews are waiting for the coming of the Messiah. In Podolia too, there appears a young, handsome and charismatic Jew – Jacob Leibowitz Frank. The mysterious stranger from faraway Smyrna begins to proclaim the ideas that will divide the Jewish community. For some he is a heretic, for others a saviour, who soon attracts a circle of devoted followers. The unrest he unleashes can change the course of history and transform the shape of this part of the world. Olga Tokarczuk pays great attention to the details of the age – the realities, the architecture, the clothes and smells. We visit aristocratic residences, Catholic presbyteries and Jewish homesteads, pious and immersed in reading of mysterious writings. Before us is a bygone Poland, in which Christianity, Judaism and Islam stood side by side. “The story of Jacob is so amazing that it is hard to believe that it really happened.” Olga Tokarczuk “The Books of Jacob is a fictional and historical novel that is kept in a realistic convention and refers to magical realism, a family chronicle and a panorama of a society. It is literature and more than literature.” Przemysław Czapliński, Gazeta Wyborcza

FICTION

date of publication: 2014 pages: 912 Rights sold: Croatia (Fraktura), Czech Republic (Host), France (Noir sur Blanc), Holland, (De Geus), Israel (Carmel),Serbia, Slovenia (KUD Police Dubove), Sweden (Ariel)

brings to life. Her reconstruction of the setting of the action is remarkable… Similarly intriguing are the portraits of the social groups she describes. Yet in the foreground is the irreconcilable conflict of ideas which, in the world created by Tokarczuk, liberates, destroys, reopens, stigmatises as the Other, and forces one to discover one’s own weaknesses.” Bernadetta Darska, Onet.pl books “With The Books of Jacob, Tokarczyk has entered a new role which perhaps she has even been readying herself for some time: here, she is like nothing else but an obstreperous 21st-century prophetess who reaches back into the nation’s history to give it a good shake, iron it out and interpret it in her own way. Although the action of The Books of Jacob is set 250 years ago, takes place in small provincial towns or exotic cities and concerns matters that appear esoteric and obscure, this is a terribly relevant and important book. Extraordinary reading…” Aleksandra Lipczak, Culture.pl Target market Lovers of ambitious contemporary prose, those interested in philosophy, history, Judaism, psychology, looking for an unusual, multidimensional book to which they will keep returning.

150 00 copies0 sold

“It took Olga Tokarczyk the last five years to write her new novel. Close to a thousand pages long, it is an enrapturing, breathless read.” Radio Trójka

ENGLISHE SAMPL ION AT TRANSL A B L E AVAIL

“The Books of Jacob is an ambiguous novel, with as many meanings as the biography on which it is based. Tokarczuk draws upon Jacob Frank’s life story, but it is not just the main protagonist that she

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fot. Zuza Krajewska

SZCZEPAN TWARDOCH

Szczepan Twardoch (b. 1979) is a writer and a journalist, and a sociologist by education. A true revelation in Polish prose, he is half Silesian and half Polish. He calls himself a Silesian author who writes in Polish. He is remarkably hard‑working: he is just over thirty years old and has already written ten books: novels, short story collections, and essays. His books have received nominations for the Gdynia Literary Award and the Józef Mackiewicz Literary Award, and he received the Silver Distinction of the Jerzy Żuławski Literary Award in 2008. He was given the Polityka Passport for his novel Morphine (2012), which was also nominated for the Gdynia Literary Award 2013, the prestigious NIKE Award 2013, the Angelus Central European Literary Award 2013, and the Culture Guarantee 2013. He is a winner of People’s Choice Nike 2013 Award. His long-awaited new novel entitled Drach was published in December 2014 to great acclaim and shortlisted for the NIKE Award. His latest novel is The King. He likes fast cars, sharp ties and suits, good cuisine, and Spitsbergen, though not necessarily all at the same time.

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SZCZEPAN TWAROCH MORPHINE

Keynote A rollicking novel about a man born in bad times, and a debaucherous artist hooked on morphine, who has transformed into a demonic, dangerous, and irresponsible conspirator, husband, and lover… Selling points  Winner of Readers’ Choice Nike 2013 Award!  Winner of the Polityka Passport in 2013!  An original combination of the fantastic and the traditional historical novel, with elements of political and psychological thriller.  A unique protagonist – an unusual individual, an outsider, a powerful man, often a soldier, and aristocrat, in conflict with the modern world, faithful to the values he espouses, but also struggling with identity problems.

MORFINA

Description Konstanty Willemann lives in Warsaw, but he is the son of a German aristocrat and a Polonized Silesian woman, who does not make much of patriotic slogans and the tradition of heroic soldiers dying for their homelands. He is a cynic, a scoundrel, and a bon vivant. He is a cheating husband and a bad father.

FICTION

date of publication: 2012 pages: 624 Rights sold: Czech Republic (Host), Germany (Rowohlt), France (Noir sur Blanc), Hungary (Typotex), Macedonia (Begemot), Serbia (Dereta), Slovenia (Cankarjeva Zalozba), Romania (Casa Cartii de Stiinta)

Konstanty reluctantly takes part in the September Campaign, and when it collapses, he joins a secret organization with equal reluctance. He does not want to be a Pole or a German. He does, however, want to get his hands on more morphine and live his old life as a barfly and a womanizer. But you cannot escape from history. In Morphine, Szczepan Twardoch has achieved a rare feat in Polish prose – he has created an anti-hero whom you cannot help but like. Like the great ones – Witkacy, Gombrowicz, Littell – the young writer knows how to show a weak, torn human being enmeshed in history. A crazed, trance-inducing, and bold novel. “The Author uses techniques of modernist novel with mastery. The use of internal monologue, stream of consciousness and free indirect speech brings into mind Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz as well as Joyce’s Ullysses. Just like Leopold Bloom or Franz Biberkopf, Konstanty Willeman is an anti-hero who roams the streets of a big city.” “Like in Littell’s The Kindly Ones, in Twardoch’s Morphine cynicism is mixed with decadence and obscenity with sentimentalism… Nevertheless the attempt at presenting the events from Autumn 1939 in Warsaw with the use of the language of the era (instead of a realistic reenactment of what happened to our mothers and fathers) is fascinating.”

75 000 copies sold GERMA EDITIO N AVAILAN BLE FRENC EDITIO H AVAILAN BLE

“Twardoch’s novel in a remarkably artful and witty way casts doubt on monumental stereotypes of both Polish and German culture of memory.” „Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” Target market Novel lovers of all ages, those interested in the history of Poland and alternate realities.

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23 000 copie sold befor s publicatione German rights so to Rowohlld t Verlag before publication !

SZCZEPAN TWAROCH THE KING

Keynote Warsaw, the tumultuous 1930s. Sophistication and poverty. The colorful and contradictory world of synagogues and churches, salons and universities, Zionist clubs, communist conspiracies, nationalist raiding parties, the secular and the very pious. On the eve of World War Two, these co-existing worlds are connected by an infamous gang. The novel’s main protagonist, Jakub Szapiro, a boxer of Jewish descent, is one of the gang leaders in the violent underworld. Strong, daring, victorious, he seems to be one of the true rulers of the proud and ungovernable metropolis.

KRÓL

Selling points  A brilliantly depicted picture of prewar Warsaw. The reader can walk the streets and alleyways of the intact, multicultural city with its wealth of nightlife, extremes, and ideological struggles.  The main protagonist is a fascinating and utterly fleshed-out character. Widely admired and desired, yet terrifying and cruel, he evades all facile categories.  Poland in the 1930s, consumed by disputes, full of contradictions in society and world views, described without mythologizing.  Full of compelling subplots, vivid characters, plot twists, and historical

FICTION

date of publication: 2016 pages: 432 Rights sold: Rowohlt Verlag (Germany)

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details, this is a novel you cannot put down. Appealing, bold, and groundbreaking – it is the author’s next step forward in expanding his reader base, proving the great scope and universality of his literature. Description We encounter Jakub Szapiro as he is knocking out his rival after a brief and lopsided fight. Around the ring we hear cries of joy from the Jewish audience and the disappointment of the Polish fans. The winning boxer snubs his defeated opponent – a member of a Fascist organization. Triumphant and admired, Szapiro becomes an idol. He is not, however, the perfect superhero type. He is the right-hand man of Kum Kaplica, Warsaw’s “Godfather,” head of the PolishJewish mafia, which harangues both Poles and Jews without bias. The boxer ruthlessly pursues crooks and wipes out his opponents in cold blood. Kum Kaplica is known throughout the city. He drives a beautiful Chrysler, is munificent toward some and oppresses and humiliates others. The developing events pull the reader into the jeopardous world of prewar Warsaw. Here conflicts are resolved by force, and the weak have no say in the matter. We encounter the fascinating and colorful figures of gangsters, gamblers, bourgeoisie, salesmen, athletes, prostitutes, and corrupt politicians from both sides of the fence. In his inimitable style, with impeccable care for historical detail, Twardoch portrays the life of the city and its criminals, as well as the political elite. He skillfully weaves in an unconventional romantic subplot and startling plot twists, ensuring his audience a truly intense read. “The King is a deftly written thriller with a subtle and unimposing issue behind it. And a fantasy of the male ideal with a homoerotic subtext.” Dariusz Nowacki, Gazeta Wyborcza

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“This is a real ‘boy’s’ novel. It begins with a punch – with a fast-paced description of a boxing match. All of Twardoch’s fetishes are inplace: weapons, cars, suits. There’s exciting violence, a lockerroom atmosphere, sexual fantasies and voyeurism – we first see the main protagonist, the Jewish mafioso boxer Jakub Szapiro, through the eyes of an anxious skinny boy. Is the old Israeli army general recalling bygone times the same person? If we were to look at the first few dozen pages of The King – with its world of brawls and street curiosities – it would seem to be Twardoch’s most genre novel. A retro detective story in the spirit of Tyrmand, but darker and more brutal.” Witold Mrozek “After reading The King it is hard to just put it back on the shelf and pretend that we have merely read a great book. The King rummages around in our guts and plunges deep into our consciences.” Krzysztof Varga “This is what Twardoch probably does best – he writes about Warsaw like it was New York or Chicago of the time, and does it in fine style.” Łukasz Grzymisławski “It promises to be somethign like a Polish version of Inglourious Basterds, in which the oppressed Polish Jews, supported by a likeable Polish gangster, take revenge on Polih antisemites. Or simply a gangster picaresque novel set in an era that is increasingly popular.” Juliusz Kurkiewicz Target market A very wide audience. Lovers of tough and suspenseful literature. Beginning with those who read thrillers and adventure novels, but also those in search of romantic subplots, as well as readers of literature that deals with history, its gaps, controversial Polish/Jewish themes, and those in search of a contemporary, dazzling, and conscious voice on the history of Europe and its still-shaky social and ethnic relations. Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

ANDRZEJ ANDRUSIEWICZ

Andrzej Andrusiewicz (b. 1940) – historian and political scientist who specializes in the history of Russia and Eastern and Cetral European countries, He is the author of over twenty publications on Russian history, especially the period of the Time of Troubles as well as biographies of two Russian rulers - Peter the Great and Catherine II.

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ANDRZEJ ANDRUSIEWICZ A GOLDEN DREAM: RUSSIA OF THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES

Keynote A remarkable history of the Russian Empire, written from the perspective of its protagonists’ individual and colorful biographies. Where most history books simplify and dilute with dry facts, Andrusiewicz writes in an entirely different way. Selling Points  A history of the Russian czars written from an utterly new perspective.  Colorful and unique biographies of extraordinary people who shaped the history of the nineteenth century.  The author is among Poland’s most important and acknowledged historians, one of the world’s foremost authorities on Russian history, a biographer of key figures in Russian history.  A book that explains the genesis of Russian imperial policies in an insightful and compelling way, illuminating the country’s present-day incarnation.  Less an academic study than a concise “biography of an epoch”.  To a large extent, this is also the history of Poland (part of which fell within the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century).  A portrait of an empire that was a unique cultural melting pot, stretching from the Vistula river to Alaska.

NON-FICTION

date of publication: 2016 pages: 596

Description For centuries, Russia has been a mystery for both ordinary citizens and leaders of the Western world. It evokes a shudder, but also fascinates with its verve and exotica – to this day the Empire of the Czars fires the imagination of historians and readers who enjoy marvelous, epic tales. Outstanding and lauded historian Andrzej Andrusiewicz has a vast knowledge of Russian history; once again, he offers us a unique opportunity to watch the gears of history turn. This famous biographer of the czars has now created a sprawling panorama of the nineteenth-century Empire, stretching from Central Europe to Asia and Alaska. An epoch drawn to a close by the October Revolution, one perhaps like no other in history, filled with court intrigues, heroic battles, scandals and romances, as well as spies, geniuses, inventors, charlatans, visionaries, and madmen. Andrusiewicz describes the complex history of the most important player on the nineteenthcentury map of the world, primarily focusing on the fates of outstanding individuals whose talents, cleverness, and charisma had a real impact on the course of history. The biographies of such figures as Gogol, Rasputin, and Bakunin are perfect material for a suspense novel or a film filled with plot twists – and Andrusiewicz knows how to use it like none other. After reading this book, history will never be the same again! Target Market Readers of popular history books (e.g. fans of Norman Davis). Readers of web sites, magazines, and fan pages devoted to historical curiosities (np. Histmag or http:// ciekawostkihistoryczne.pl). Readers of biographies of great historical figures. People interested in present-day Eastern politics (e.g. publications on Ukraine, Belarus, or other former states of the USSR).

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fot. Dominik Zylowski

PRZEMYSŁAW CZAPLINSKI

Przemysław Czapliński is a professor, a literary critic, and a journalist; he works at the Polish Literature Institute at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He is one of the most important and highly regarded scholars and promoters of Polish literature and culture, and the winner of many prestigious awards, including the Kazimierz Wyk and the Kościelski Foundation. His numerous books have stirred controversy and debate, including A Counterfeit World: Criticism and Literature Face a New Reality (2003), The Return of the Center: Literature in a New Reality (2007), Poland up for Exchange: Late Modernity and Our Great Narratives (2009), and The Remains of Modernity: Two Studies on Literature and Life (2011).

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Keynote A dazzling essay on Polish culture and identity by one of Poland’s most important literary critics and cultural sociologists.

PORUSZONA MAPA

PRZEMYSŁAW CZAPLINSKI SHIFTING THE MAP

Selling Points  The author is a highly regarded and widely acknowledged figure in the Polish academic world (he is a professor at the Adam Mickiewicz University), as well as an author and journalist whose name is recognized by the wider public.  A book that explains the complexities and nuances of Polish culture and national identity in an accessible and entertaining manner.  This book is an important voice in the debate on the shape and destiny of a future Europe.  An excellent way for foreigners to be introduced to various “internal” national disagreements which might remain incomprehensible without suitable commentary. Description Knowledge of political geography alone is insufficient to navigate freely through a country’s cultural space. A lesson in the geographic imagination is also essential, outlining the basic points that mark out how we perceive ourselves and others. Is

Poland in the East, or the West, or maybe the North? This question has nothing to do with coordinates on the map, it depends on a complicated set of images and imaginings that every person carries in his or her head. Shifting the Map, the latest book by outstanding academic, journalist, and professor Przemysław Czapliński, explains the mechanisms behind Polish culture, in which there must be an unending debate over what to acknowledge as our motherland and the politico-cultural space to which it belongs. This is a book for Poles seeking to understand many of their own issues, and for foreigners, illuminating the cultural specifics of a mysterious country – Poland. Target Market Academic communities, students, humanists, people involved in culture. Journalists and reporters. People interested in politics and culture. People interested in Central and Eastern European issues. People interested in Polish issues.

NON-FICTION

date of publication: 2016 pages: 420

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fot. Agnieszka Herman

ANNA JANKO

Anna Janko (b. 1957) – one of the best contemporary Polish women writers, a poet and literary critic. She has written several volumes of poetry and the novels The Match Girl and Passion According to Saint Hanka. Janko was nominated for the “Nike Literary Prize” in 2001 and 2013 and the “Angelus Central European Literature Award” in 2008; she has also won many awards and literary prizes such as the “City of Gdańsk Book of the Year” in 1981 for her volume of poetry A Candle for the Devil, the “Dresden Independent Writers’ Society Prize” in 1993 for her poetic oeuvre, a nomination for the “Hermenegilda Kociubińska Silver Inkwell Literary Prize” in 2008, and a nomination for the “Cogito Media Prize” for her novel The Match Girl in 2008. Her most recent book is The Small Annihilation.

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Keynote This is a disturbing exploration of another person’s memories – the memories of the author’s own mother. It is a singularly personal story which arose in connection with historical world events.

ANNA JANKO THE SMALL ANNIHILATION

Selling points  The author has won many prizes and awards, among them the award of the New Books monthly for the best book of 2015.  This book has been very well received by readers and literary critics.  It is a singularly personal story which arose in connection with historical world events.

MAŁA ZAGŁADA

Description War never dies out… This is the latest book by the highlyrated writer and poet Anna Janko. An unsettling, very modern appraisal of the trauma suffered by the second generation – fear has left its mark on their lives. I have taken your story, your apocalypse, away from you, mother. You fed it to me when I was little, a grain at a time, little by little, so it would not poison me all at once. But the grains mounted up. Your story is in my blood… Sochy village, near Zamość, southeastern Poland, 1 June 1943. It only

FICTION

date of publication: 2015 pages: 264

SH ENGLI LE SAMP TION LA TRANSI L A B L E AVA 60

Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

took a few hours to annihilate the village. The buildings were burnt down; the inhabitants shot to death. All that remained among the charred ruins was one house, a few adults and several children. Among them was nine-year-old Terenia Ferenc, Anna Janko’s mother. The little girl saw the Germans murdering her family. This brutal image was to stay with her throughout the years she spent in a children’s home, never allowing her to forget… It was as if I had two mothers because of it all. The first was an adult woman, whom I missed when she went to the shops, whom I feared when she lost her temper, who filled me with pride because no-one in our whole block had a prettier lady for a mother. I also had another mother: a little girl, whose parents had died in the war, who was still terrified and lonely, who had once known hunger and been forced to work for a nasty aunt, the sort who beat her and made her carry pails of water up the hill. For her going to the children’s home after the war was – what a paradox – the best possible good fortune. This little-girl-mother would often lie down on the divan in the middle of the day and cry for no reason. [excerpt from the book] Anna Janko’s The Small Annihilation is not just another tragic family story retrieved from storage where it had been gathering dust since the Second World War. The book gives us a powerful, entirely modern treatment of the trauma experienced by the second generation, stigmatised by fear. The account of the brutal, wartime destruction of the Polish village, told in a naturalistic style, is a starting point for describing a state of ethical and existential vulnerability. Janko’s prose is as sophisticated and challenging as ever and the subject matter is more demanding than usual. It combines a contemporary story with disturbing events from the past, and narration with reportage. 61

“It takes its place within a very important European trend of exploring the tragedy of the Second World War in a spirit of understanding and openness to dialogue, rather than of rivalry in relation to victims and war crimes.” Robert Traba, Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper “Janko has masterfully combined her mother’s memories, accounts from other members of the family who could tell their own versions of the story, and references to academic texts and essays with her own testimony about inheriting such memories and facing the burden and restrictions they impose.” Bernadetta Darska, Onet.pl internet portal “An exceptional book. Exceptional not just because we believe the author when she speaks of her ‘genetic trauma’ due to her powerful language which conveys her sadness, anger and goading irony, which verges on cynicism (…). Emotional truth emanates from this book.” Juliusz Kurkiewicz, Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper “This book argues strongly against the view that instances of war-related trauma can be ranked in a hierarchy.” Piotr Kofta, Wprost periodical “As with Svetlana Alexievich’s reportage, in this book war is shown not only as a tragic episode in history, but as a living memory, which even after many years puts us on our guard as a danger which could recur.” Aleksandra Żelazińska, Polityka periodical Target market Loyal readers of Anna Janko’s work, readers interested in current affairs, history, psychology and sociology, readers who like essays, reportage and literary non‑fiction.

Over 8 000 copie s sold Contact: foreign rights manager: Joanna Dąbrowska [email protected]

fot. Michał Łepecki

EWA LIPSKA

Ewa Lipska was born in 1945 in Krakow. She is one of the most celebrated poets whose works stimulate the readers intellectually as well as are considered to be widely accessible to general public. Her poems were first published in Gazeta Krakowska while she was still in high school in 1961. She is a member of Polish and Austrian PEN Club, the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as a member – founder of The Association of Polish Writers.She was an editor at the poetry department at Wydawnictwo Literackie. She worked at the Polish embassy in Vienna and was a head of the Polish Institute there. She currently lives and works in Krakow. She has received up to date numerous literary awards and has participated in many international festivals of poetry. Her poems are widely translated and have appeared in over forty collections. Her recent volumes of verse include Newton’s Orange (2007), Echo (2010) and Dear Ms Schubert (2012). She published her first novel – Sefer – in 2009. Her latest volume of poetry is A Palm Line Reader.

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EWA LIPSKA A PALM LINE READER

Five years after the publication of Echo, Ewa Lipska’s previous volume of poetry, this outstanding writer offers us another book — A Palm Line Reader. Thirty new, compeling, and thought-provoking poems. Ewa Lipska grounds her work in concrete, often seemingly trivial situations – the universal roots of her observations. With some unusual details she reveals another, astonishing dimension to daily life.

CZYTNIK LINII PAPILARNYCH

Ewa Lipska on her new volume: “I wrote these poems without a main theme, and then tried to gather them into a whole. (...). I came up with the title earlier. The palm line reader was a symbol. On the one hand it is biometrical security as a symbol of the times we live in, and on the other, the palm lines are personal and individual. And I knew that the connection of these two things would perfectly cover all the poems in this volume.”

ated Nomin e for th016 Award NIKE 2

POETRY

date of publication: 2016 pages: 56

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PIOTR MATYWIECKI

Piotr Matywiecki (b. 1943) – a highly admired poet and essayist; each of his new volumes is an event on the poetry scene. A poet who is able to splendidly revive reflexive and philosophical lyric poetry, and find new ways of approaching difficult themes like death, the passing of time, and the mystery of existence. His first volume of poems, That Cloud Will Return (2005), made it to the seven finalists for the Nike Award. For his Air and Blackness (2009) he was nominated for the Nike and Gdynia awards, and received the Silesius literary award. For his book on Julian Tuwim, Tuwim’s Face (2007) he received the Gdynia Literary Award in 2008.

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PIOTR MATYWIECKI WHICH WAY FOR EVER

Keynote Uncomfortable but unavoidable questions, the transience of the moment and an extraordinary atmosphere – the latest volume of poetry of one of Poland’s best contemporary poets. Selling points  The latest volume of poetry of one of the most highly rated Polish poets.  The winner of many prestigious prizes and awards.

KTÓRĘDY NA ZAWSZE

Description Piotr Matywiecki’s most personal, mature and complete volume of poems. Several dozen poems arrange themselves into a poetic-philosophical message about history, existence and the fundamental questions which we ask ourselves in an increasingly severe and uncomfortable way as we get older. Pertinent questions, an uncompromising approach and the ability to turn historical and existential specifics into universal, philosophical tropes make this poetry inspiring reading. The personal experiences Matywiecki cites – from being born in the ravages of war to brushes with death – lend the paradoxes characteristic of his work an increased force, eliminate the poetic margins, and mean that the intellectual message is

often emotional at the same time. The poet’s mistrust or vigilance towards words, and the shakiness of their meaning, is tested here to see how much of an empty message they hide. The intensiveness of this poetry, the efforts to touch the elusive traces of meaning, lead us to read it with great fervour. “Reading Matywiecki’s poems, one has the impression of participating in several spaces at once. Readers of the poem seems to be being guided around the earthly world, and yet all the time they are reminded that apart from them, the world and people, there is something more. And this is not about elevating mundane things, but rather deciding about oneself, one’s existence, recalling oneself from years back, and asking about one’s future”. Magdalena Żerek, journalist Target market Poetry lovers.

ated Nomin e for th016 Award NIKE 2

POETRY

date of publication: 2016 pages: 120

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fot. Przemysław Sieraczyński

JAROSŁAW MIKOŁAJEWSKI

Jarosław Mikołajewski (b. 1960) – poet, writer, columnist; translator from Italian; writes about literature and art. The author of six volumes of poetry as well as novels. His poems have been translated into Italian, German, Hebrew and Greek. The winner of many prestigious awards including the Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna Poetry Award, the Nowa Okolica Poetów Award, the Brother Albert Prize and the Barbara Sadowska Award.

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A compelling and evocative volume in which we observe the transition from a personal experience of suspension, futility, and the passing of time, to a metaphysical experience: the search for meaning, God, and a person’s place in the world.

JAROSŁAW MIKOŁAJEWSKI THE BEGGAR

The dreams in this volume, evoking apocalyptic and menacing images, a sense of inevitable conclusion, and a responsibility for the world, assemble into a  subversive lament for the poet’s own self and the world.

ŻEBRAK

In this hyperbolic world there is also room for another of Mikołajewski’s favorite themes: the family, pointed commentaries, bold questions, and a depiction of unadorned reality through episodes and details.

POETRY

date of publication: 2016 pages: 68

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