Yesterday I shared with you few great books written by Polish authors and translated into English (Polish books worth reading)I’m really hoping to get some more opinions about them from you!
Today I put together few more words about 4 more books! Here they are:
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Snow White and Russian Red
Dorota Masłowska (2005), translated by Benjamin Paloff
Chaotic, surreal, vulgar, darkly comic, and breathtaking, Masłowska’s debut novel became a best-seller shortly after its publication in 2002. A monologue by a tracksuited slacker in search of the next girl and a line of speed while the Russians are taking over the local black market. Is the war coming or are these drug-fuelled delusions? Fiction like a roller coaster.
Masłowska first appeared in the mass-media when this debut book “Wojna polsko-ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną” (translated to English as either White and Red in the UK or Snow White and Russian Red in the US) was published. Largely controversial, mostly because of the language seen by many as vulgar, cynical and simple, the book was praised by many intellectuals as innovative and fresh.
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The Cyberiad
Stanisław Lem (2008), translated by Michael Kandel
In 1974 Stanisław Lem was reported to the FBI by the legendary American science fiction author Phillip K. Dick, who believed (perhaps due to his schizophrenia) that Lem was in fact a pseudonym for a composite of Communist Party committee members: “he writes in several styles”, Dick said. But in fact, Lem was simply an incredibly imaginative and unique author, best known in the West for his novel Solaris. You don’t need to be a fan of science fiction to be blown away by his masterpiece The Cyberiad. In a robot dominated future, rival inventors and best friends Klaupacius and Trurl travel across the galaxy, creating ever more ridiculous and nonsensical inventions. Beneath this compelling collection of hilarious stories of two robots and their adventures Lem delves into the complexity of our own humanity.
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House of Day, House of Night
Olga Tokarczuk (2002), translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Tokarczuk is considered by many to be one of the best Polish authors writing today. House of Day, House of Night is her sixth book, but the first to be translated into English. It is a collection of interlocked stories and observations set in and around the town of Nowa Ruda. “If death were nothing but bad, people would stop dying immediately,” says one of the neighbours, Marta. Past and present, dreams and reality, life and death, all merge in this delightfully inventive prose about ordinary human lives.
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The Assassin from Apricot City
Witold Szabłowski, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Szabłowski travels to the most remote Turkish towns and villages to meet women forced into prostitution, Kurdish freedom fighters, girls who run away from honour killings. A captivating book of reportage about contemporary Turkish society.
Again, I would love to read your personal opinion about these book! Please let us know if you read any of them:)
Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)
