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The Penguin Book of Polish Short Stories
Witty, surprising and sparkling, this anthology is an essential exploration of Polish literature. Its thirty-nine superb stories run the length of the literal and imaginative creation of Poland, from 1918 (when Poland regained its independence after 123 years of colonization by the neighbouring empires) to the present.
The stories include 'Miss Winczewska', by the classic twentieth-century writer Maria Dabrowska (1889-1965), based on her experience of returning from the provinces to the destroyed capital when the war ended in 1945; and 'In the Shadow of Brooklyn' by Stanislaw Dygat (1914-78), the comical tale of a young man's envy of what he imagines to be his father's success with women. At the contemporary end, it includes a story by Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk (1962), 'The Green Children', a historical story set in 1656, narrated by a Scottish doctor who, as the Polish king's physician, travels about the wilds of Poland and encounters two feral children. Curated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, this anthology is a refreshing and glorious new collection of the best in Polish literature.
The stories include 'Miss Winczewska', by the classic twentieth-century writer Maria Dabrowska (1889-1965), based on her experience of returning from the provinces to the destroyed capital when the war ended in 1945; and 'In the Shadow of Brooklyn' by Stanislaw Dygat (1914-78), the comical tale of a young man's envy of what he imagines to be his father's success with women. At the contemporary end, it includes a story by Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk (1962), 'The Green Children', a historical story set in 1656, narrated by a Scottish doctor who, as the Polish king's physician, travels about the wilds of Poland and encounters two feral children. Curated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, this anthology is a refreshing and glorious new collection of the best in Polish literature.
547 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 5, 2025
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About the author
Antonia Lloyd-Jones
79 books67 followersAntonia Lloyd-Jones is the 2018 winner of the Transatlantyk Award for the most outstanding promoter of Polish literature abroad. She has translated works by several of Poland’s leading contemporary novelists and writers of reportage, as well as crime fiction, poetry, and children’s books. She is a mentor for the Emerging Translator Mentorship Programme and former co-chair of the Translators Association of the United Kingdom.
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