Marek Hlasko – författare

Marek Hlasko's literary autobiography is a vivid, first-hand account of the life of a young writer in 1950s Poland and a fascinating portrait of the ultimately short-lived rebel generation. Told in a voice suffused with grit and morbid humor, Hlasko's memoir was a classic of its time. In it he recounts his adventures and misadventures, moving swiftly from one tale to the next. Like many writers of his time, Hlasko also worked in screen writing, and his memoir provides a glimpse into just how markedly the medium of film affected him from his very earliest writing days.The memoir details his relationships with such giants of Polish culture as the filmmaker Roman Polanski and the novelist Jerzy Andrzejewski. Hlasko is the most prominent example of a writer who broke free from the Socialist-Realist formulae that dominated the literary scene in Poland since it fell under the influence of the Soviets. He made his literary debut in 1956 and immediately became a poster boy for Polish Literature. He subsequently worked at some of the most important newspapers and magazines for intellectual life in Warsaw. Hlasko was sent to Paris on an official mission in 1958, but when he published in an \u00e9migr\u00e9 Parisian press his novel of life in post-War Poland, he was denied a renewal of his passport. In effect, he was called back to Poland, and when he refused to return he was stripped of his Polish citizenship. He spent the rest of his life working in exile.Marek Hlasko was a rebel whose writing and iconoclastic way of life became an inspiration to those of his generation and after. Here, in the first English translation of his literary memoir, Ross Ufberg deftly renders Hlasko's wry and passionate voice.

Robert and Jacob are down-and-out Polish con men living in Israel in the 1960s. They're planning to run a scam on an American widow visiting the country. Robert, who masterminds the scheme, and Jacob, who acts it out, are tough, desperate men, adrift in the nasty underworld of Tel Aviv. Robert arranges for Jacob to run into the woman, whose heart is open; the men are hoping her wallet is too. What follows is a story of love, deception, cruelty, and shame, as Jacob pretends to fall in love with her.

“An existential fable” from the uncompromising Polish author of Killing the Second Dog, known as the James Dean of Eastern Europe (The New York Times).   In this novel of breathtaking tension and sweltering love, two desperate friends on the edge of the law—one of them tough and gutsy, the other small and scared—travel to the southern Israeli city of Eilat to find work. There, Dov Ben Dov, the handsome native Israeli with a reputation for causing trouble, and Israel, his sidekick, stay with Ben Dov’s recently married younger brother, Little Dov, who has enough trouble of his own. Local toughs are encroaching on Little Dov’s business, and he enlists his older brother to drive them away. It doesn’t help that a beautiful German widow named Ursula is rooming next door. What follows is a story of passion, deception, violence, and betrayal, all conveyed in hardboiled prose reminiscent of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, with a cinematic style that would make Humphrey Bogart and Marlon Brando green with envy.   “[A] blowtorch of a novel . . . Matchless and prescient.” —Publishers Weekly   “A story as bleak and unrelenting as its setting, in which no one escapes the past or themselves. Nihilistic but compelling.” —Kirkus Reviews  Praise for Marek Hlasko “Hlasko was an original. His novels were fearless, his vision unsparing, and decades later, his darkly brilliant work has lost none of its power to unsettle. He achieved what few other writers ever have: he turned the literary landscape into a much more interesting place than it was when he found it.” ––Emily St. John Mandel, author of National Book Award finalist Station Eleven

En una base aislada del mundo, rodeados de bosque y de las cumbres de los montes Gigantes, en el sur de Polonia, un grupo de desarraigados trabaja transportando madera en camiones desvencijados. Afligidos por su destino, los hombres no pueden imaginar un futuro; tan solo anhelan unos camiones nuevos con los que hacer su trabajo de forma menos arriesgada, algo que les permita pensar en otra cosa diferente a la muerte. Las carreteras al borde del precipicio, llenas de nieve y baches, intensifican su frustración y la sensación de amenaza constante. Cada día que pasa se hunden más en la desesperación, el desencanto y los recuerdos.Un día un representante del partido llega al barracón de la base maderera. La llegada de este con su esposa a la cerrada comunidad masculina no hace más que profundizar los conflictos mientras ella intenta desesperadamente escapar de aquel infierno.Publicada por primera vez en 1958, esta novela, calificada de western de la era comunista, continúa la línea de crítica social y de realismo pesimista de uno de los autores más rebeldes de la literatura polaca.

Opowiadania są bramą do literackiego uniwersum Marka Hłaski, przeklętego pisarza polskiej literatury XX wieku. Surowym, szczerym i głęboko ludzkim głosem Hłasko tworzy w tych opowiadaniach mozaikę istnień naznaczonych samotnością, buntem i poszukiwaniem godności w świecie, który często zdaje się jej odmawiać.Na tych stronach spotykają się bohaterowie walczący z własnymi ograniczeniami, kochający z dziką intensywnością, wspominający z bólem lub po prostu próbujący przetrwać otaczającą ich rzeczywistość. Każde opowiadanie odsłania mistrzostwo narracyjne Hłaski: jego zdolność do bezlitosnej, przenikliwej obserwacji codzienności i przekształcania jej w literaturę o niezapomnianej sile wyrazu.Sięgając po Opowiadania, czytelnik odkrywa nie tylko zbiór poruszających i mocnych historii, lecz także istotę autora, którego burzliwe życie i literacka wrażliwość uczyniły postacią wyjątkową w europejskiej literaturze.