Margot Carlier Books

Our hero and narrator is the aging caretaker of cottages at a summer resort. A mysterious visitor inspires him to share the story of his long life: we witness a happy childhood cut short by the war, his hiding from the Nazis buried in a heap of potatoes, his plodding attempts to play the saxophone, the brutal murder of his family, loves lost but remembered, and footloose travels abroad. Told in the manner of friends and neighbors swapping stories over the mundane task of shelling beans—in the grand oral tradition of Myśliwski’s celebrated Stone Upon Stone—each anecdote, lived experience, and memory accrues cross-stitched layers of meaning. By turns hilarious and poignant, A Treatise on Shelling Beans is an epic recounting of a life that, while universal, is anything but ordinary.

Kolejna wybitna powieść Myśliwskiego jest utworem, który przywraca mocno ostatnio nadszarpniętą wiarę w możliwości kreacyjne współczesnej prozy narracyjnej. Jest zapisem poszerzania granic osobistego widnokręgu człowieka jego kolejnymi życiowymi doświadczeniami. To zarówno doświadczenia pierwszej rozpaczy, jak i pierwszej miłości, doświadczenie pierwszej libacji i odkrywanie dwoistości prawdy o ludziach. Pamięć wszystko wydobywa z zapomnienia, ale nie jest to pamięć porządkująca. Narrator poddaje się jej, w niczym nie sprzeciwia ani nie zamierza nią kierować. Rzeczą pisarza jest przenieść tę meandryczną narrację do powieści. Myśliwskiemu to się udaje, bo jest jednym z mistrzów współczesnej polskiej literatury.

"'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