Pawel Huelle

Den polska litteraturen har återknutit kontakten med jorden och utforskar det nya samhällets gränser, tabun och historiska minnesluckor. Domen över den trasgranna marknadsanpassningen är hård, vilket uttrycks i rå realism, flykt in i det förflutna eller romantisering av landets marginaler. Mitt i detta återvänder historien och religionen, fast i ny skepnad. Som bråte eller drivved som har flutit upp på stranden. Eller som spår. Spår från det förflutna, spår efter den Andre, spår efter den Förintade. Verkligheten är ett semantiskt pussel. I varje stad eller by har någon försvunnit, utrotats eller förflyttats. Föremål och byggnader har bytt ägare. De nya invånarna försöker besvärja tingen och göra dem till sina. Men något stör dessa försök. Något som skorrar och klingar falskt. Texter i urval av Irena Grönberg och Stefan Ingvarsson

A student pedals an old Ukrainian bicycle between striking factories delivering bulletins in the tumultuous first days of the Polish Solidarity movement; a shepherd watches, unseen, as a strange figure disembarks from a pirate ship to bury a chest on the beach; a prisoner in a Berber dungeon recounts his life's story--the failed pursuit of the world's very first language--by scrawling in the sand on his cell floor. The characters in this mesmerizing short story collection find themselves, willingly or not, at the heart of epic narratives. Against such backdrops as the Baltic coast, Kashubian folklore, Chinese mysticism, and the 9/11 attacks, this book centers around the vision of the refugee: be it the Chechen woman carrying her newborn child across the Polish border, the survivor of the Gulag reappearing on his friends' doorstep, or the stranger who befriends the sole resident of a ghostly Mennonite village in the final days of World War II. Offering insight into Polish and Jewish sociopolitical history, this collection is written in the style and traditions of Polish literature.

Featuring several authors hailing from "cities on the edge"--European port cities including Liverpool, Bremen, Gdansk, Istanbul, Marseilles, and Naples--this stirring collection of short stories explores these landscapes of change, from their social tensions, scars of war, and economic decline to their citizens' attempts at regeneration and startling means to thriving and surviving. In Gdansk, a German exile returns to his childhood home in search of a valuable coin collection left behind during World War II. In Naples, a young woman desperate to escape the slums becomes a Camorra mole and eventually a political powerbroker. In Liverpool, a young Spanish soccer player arrives to fulfill his dream of playing in the Premiership, but in the backstreets of Anfield he meets a local resident with a very different perspective on the game. A look at the their shared history of dissent, diversity, and economic reinvention, this riveting compilation examines the tragedy of these cities once known as gateways to the world and as harbors of wealth and innovation.