Featuring stunning illustrations, this picture book for adults combines the artistic talents of Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk and illustrator Joanna Concejo. It includes two gatefold pages that enhance the visual experience, inviting readers to explore its themes and artistry. Following their previous collaboration, The Lost Soul, this work promises to engage and inspire with its unique blend of narrative and imagery.
Set in a sanitarium on the brink of World War I, this masterwork by a Nobel Prize winner delves into the dark truths hidden beneath society's revered concepts. It explores the psychological and moral complexities faced by its characters, revealing the unsettling realities of human nature and the fragility of civilization during turbulent times. The narrative promises a profound examination of fear, hope, and the human condition against the backdrop of impending conflict.
The Nobel Prize-winner's richest, most sweeping and ambitious novel yet follows the comet-like rise and fall of a mysterious, messianic religious leader as he blazes his way across eighteenth-century Europe. In the mid-eighteenth century, as new ideas-and a new unrest-begin to sweep the Continent, a young Jew of mysterious origins arrives in a village in Poland. Before long, he has changed not only his name but his persona; visited by what seem to be ecstatic experiences, Jacob Frank casts a charismatic spell that attracts an increasingly fervent following. In the decade to come, Frank will traverse the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires with throngs of disciples in his thrall as he reinvents himself again and again, converts to Islam and then Catholicism, is pilloried as a heretic and revered as the Messiah, and wreaks havoc on the conventional order, Jewish and Christian alike, with scandalous rumors of his sect's secret rituals and the spread of his increasingly iconoclastic beliefs. The story of Frank-a real historical figure around whom mystery and controversy swirl to this day-is the perfect canvas for the genius and unparalleled reach of Olga Tokarczuk. Narrated through the perspectives of his contemporaries-those who revere him, those who revile him, the friend who betrays him, the lone woman who sees him for what he is-The Books of Jacob captures a world on the cusp of precipitous change, searching for certainty and longing for transcendence
In The Books of Jacob, Tokarczuk traverses the Hapsburg and Ottoman Empires and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in search of Jacob Frank, a highly controversial historical figure from the eighteenth century and the leader of a mysterious, heretical Jewish splinter group that converted at different times to both Islam and Catholicism.
"'Once upon a time there was a man who worked very hard and very quickly, and who had left his soul far behind him long ago. In fact his life was all right without his soul--he slept, ate, worked, drove a car and even played tennis. But sometimes he felt as if the world around him were flat, as if he were moving across a smooth page in a math book that was covered in evenly spaced squares...' The Lost Soul is a deeply moving reflection on our capacity to live in peace with ourselves, to remain patient, attentive to the world. It is a story that beautifully weaves together the voice of the Nobel Prize-winning Polish novelist Olga Tokarczuk and the finely detailed pen-and-ink drawings of illustrator Joanna Concejo, who together create a parallel narrative universe full of secrets, evocative of another time. Here a man has forgotten what makes his heart feel full. He moves to a house away from all that is familiar to him to wait for his soul to return. The Lost Soul is a sublime album, a rare delicacy that will delight readers young and old. 'You must find a place of your own, sit there quietly and wait for your soul.'"-- Provided by publisher
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century "A brilliant literary murder mystery." —Chicago Tribune "Extraordinary. Tokarczuk's novel is funny, vivid, dangerous, and disturbing, and it raises some fierce questions about human behavior. My sincere admiration for her brilliant work." —Annie Proulx In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind . . . A deeply satisfying thriller cum fairy tale, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is a provocative exploration of the murky borderland between sanity and madness, justice and tradition, autonomy and fate. Whom do we deem sane? it asks. Who is worthy of a voice?
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE A visionary work of fiction by "A writer on the level of W. G. Sebald" (Annie Proulx) "A magnificent writer." — Svetlana Alexievich, Nobel Prize-winning author of Secondhand Time "A beautifully fragmented look at man's longing for permanence.... Ambitious and complex." — Washington Post From the incomparably original Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk, Flights interweaves reflections on travel with an in-depth exploration of the human body, broaching life, death, motion, and migration. Chopin's heart is carried back to Warsaw in secret by his adoring sister. A woman must return to her native Poland in order to poison her terminally ill high school sweetheart, and a young man slowly descends into madness when his wife and child mysteriously vanish during a vacation and just as suddenly reappear. Through these brilliantly imagined characters and stories, interwoven with haunting, playful, and revelatory meditations, Flights explores what it means to be a traveler, a wanderer, a body in motion not only through space but through time. Where are you from? Where are you coming in from? Where are you going? we call to the traveler. Enchanting, unsettling, and wholly original, Flights is a master storyteller's answer.
This book, published by Twisted Spoon Press in Prague, features a mythical Polish village called Primeval, a microcosm of the world guarded by four archangels and inhabited by eccentric, archetypal characters. It chronicles the lives of these residents throughout the tumultuous 20th century, employing a forceful and direct prose style akin to the magic realism of Gabriel García Márquez. The narrative unfolds in short bursts of "Time," resembling a stylized fable or epic allegory that explores the relentless passage of time and the conflict between modernity and nature, reflecting Poland's complex political history from 1914 to the 1980s amid the episodic brutality of village life. This novel transcends local concerns, establishing the author as a prominent figure in Polish and European literature. Awarded the Koscielski Foundation Prize in 1997, it has been translated into numerous languages and recognized as a contemporary classic. The author expressed a desire to create a book that encapsulates a world, portraying themes of existence through kitchens, bedrooms, memories, dreams, and amnesia—elements that contribute to the rich acoustic landscape of the narrative. The author is a recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Challenging the preconceptions of the hypothetical “small town,” this collection of short stories vividly portrays a variety of imaginative characters. In Germany, a house-husband is slowly sent over the edge by his over-achieving neighbors. In the Norwegian town of Odda, a middle-aged Morrissey fan has a matter of hours to find a girlfriend so his ailing mother can die in peace. On a broad European canvas, these diverse tales paint a tightly knit community in a positive light. Centering on gestures such as white lies, indifference, small kindnesses, and secrets, this intriguing anthology is sure to fascinate and entertain.
Nowa Ruda is a small town in Silesia, an area that has been a part of Poland, Germany and the former Czechoslovakia in the past. When the narrator of this novel moves into the area, she discovers everyone - and everything - has its own story. schovat popis