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The series of modern Polish literature opens the dimensioned project of NLO publishing house “New European Writing”. The project is aimed to present to Russian reader that part of European literature which previously was completely unknown in Russia, to show the processes which are going on today in West-European literature and culture. The authors, whose works are included into the series, mostly belong to the generation of post-Soviet period, characterized by absolutely new vital and cultural values.
 | Stefan Chwin. The Governess (Esther)
Stefan Chwin is one of the few unquestionable authorities in Polish literature. His literary style, which revives the traditions of the 19th century novel, is a unique and almost provocative phenomenon.
His latest novel The Governess is permeated with the aura of times gone by: the narration is unhurried and objects are described in meticulous, loving detail. Against this opulent background, the eternal questions of life appear all the more clearly. The image of the beautiful and mysterious Esther, cut down by a cruel disease, is the trigger for a rumination on the fragility of human existence, life and death, the phenomenon of suffering and the eternal struggle between the divine and the demonic…
| |  | Paweł Huelle. Mercedes-Benz
Car enthusiasts, not to mention admirers of Paweł Huelle, will be rapt with Mercedes-Benz. Letters to Hrabal. But this witty novel should appeal to anyone who appreciates stylish prose, as the protagonist, while trying to divert the attention of a driving instructor, weaves an endless web of family tales about automobiles. These vivid pictures of the past imbue the novel with nostalgia, and expose the narrator’s desperate desire to find a link with the past. Paweł Huelle is a master stylist, and his quirky novels form a variegated collage of miscellaneous literary traditions.
| |  | Olga Tokarczuk. Playing on Different Drums (Gra na wielu Bebenkach)
Fans of Olga Tokarczuk’s novels will not be surprised to learn that she is a master of the short story. The collection Playing on Different Drums reveals the author’s debt to the tradition of magic realism. With the power of a literary sorcerer, the writer creates worlds at once mystical and fascinating, but which invariably contain a heavy dose of truth. | |  | Olga Tokarczuk. The Last Stories: a Novel (Ostatnie Historie)
Olga Tokarczuk is a star in the firmament of modern Polish literature. In her new novel, The Last Stories (2004) Tokarczuk fulfills her early promise as one of the brightest young talents of the 1990’s. The inner worlds of three women are revealed to the reader in three separate chapters, connected by one universal problem – the experience of death. Death in this novel takes myriad forms: it can be far or near, someone else’s or one’s own. The Last Stories also treats of the need for love and freedom, of duty and guilt, of the everyday drama of existence.
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