Kosciuszko Foundation in Washington DC - Past Events

Author Wojciech Nowicki Shares His New Novel Salki

Thursday, October 5, 2017, at 7:30pm

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The Kosciuszko Foundation in Washington DC invites you      
to a book discussion

"It all blends here unexpectedly: that past and memory with the present and space. . . . At times, your skin will crawl with pleasure from reading."

— Andrzej Stasiuk

Lying in bed in Gotland after a writer's conference, thinking about his compulsive desire to travel—and the uncomfortable tensions this desire creates—the narrator of Salki starts recounting tragic stories of his family's past, detailing their lives, struggles, and fears in twentieth-century Eastern Europe. In these pieces, he investigates various "salkis"—attic rooms where memories and memorabilia are stored—real and metaphorical, investigating old documents to better understand the violence of recent times.
Winner of the prestigious Gdynia Literary Award for Essay, Salki is in the tradition of the works of W. G. Sebald and Ryszard Kapuściński, utilizing techniques of Polish reportage in creating a landscape of memory that is moving and historically powerful. 
The book has been translated from the Polish by Jan Pytalski, who will also be our guest that evening. 

About the Author: Wojciech Nowicki is a Polish essayist, journalist, critic, photographer, and even writes a culinary column. He is also the co-founder of the Imago Mundi Foundation devoted to promoting photography. Salki is his first book to be translated into English.
About the Translator: Jan Pytalski is a graduate of the American Studies Center at the University of Warsaw, and has an MA in Literary Translation Studies from the University of Rochester.
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"A masterful tribute to Georges Perec. . . . There is no future or past, but rather chains of ideas and associations that complement each other. In that sense, Nowicki's book reminds one of The Rings of Saturn by Sebald." 
—Polityka
Here is an excerpt from the book :
The Kosciuszko Foundation, 2025 O Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20036
202 785 2320

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