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9 February 2010

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Jerzy Pilch
languages: Polish  / English 
 

A novelist and newspaper columnist, born in Wisła in 1952.

He abandoned academic career choosing the life of a working writer, and won a dedicated readership during the Martial Law period with the unusually amusing satirical texts that he read aloud at meetings of the Cracow "Na Głos" group. He soon became one of the most popular columnists in "Tygodnik Powszechny", since 1999 in "Polityka", where his texts have a style all their own.

Pilch's first collection of stories - full of grotesque portraits of people and events known to the initiated - seemed like a continuation of his newspaper columns. However, his next collection of prose pieces revealed a narrative talent and skill at building anecdotes that recalled Hrabal or Kundera. Linguistically attractive and unusually funny, Pilch's stories are nevertheless underpinned with nostalgia: their protagonists are searching in vain for the flavor of their own youth and of the friends and women who have receded into the past. This existential pain can be assuaged only by clothing recollection in an anecdotal literary form, which Pilch accomplishes to perfection as he invites his readers to enjoy his ironical-philosophical tales.

Source: www.polska2000.pl, Copyright: Stowarzyszenie Willa Decjusza

For his book "By the powerful angel" Jerzy Pilch received the NIKE'2001 award - the most eminent Polish literary prize (previously, he has been nominated three times already). The book "Miasto utrapienia" ("City of woes") has been nominated for the 2005 Nike Award.

Selected Bibliography
  • "Wyznania twórcy pokątnej literatury erotycznej (Confessions of a Hole-and-Corner Pureyor of Erotic Tales)". London: Puls, 1988.
  • "Spis cudzolożnic. Proza podróżna (The List of Adulteresses: Travel Writing)". London: Puls, 1993.
  • "Rozpacz z powodu utraty furmanki (Despair at the Loss of a Horse Cart)". Cracow: Znak, 1994.
  • "Inne rozkosze (Other Delights)". Poznan: a5, 1995.
  • "Monolog z lisiej jamy (Monologue from the Fox's Den)". Cracow: Universitas, 1996.
  • "Tezy o głupocie, piciu i umieraniu (Theses on Stupidity, Drinking and Dying)". London: Puls, 1997.
  • "Tysiąc spokojnych miast (A Thousand Peaceful Cities)". London: Puls, 1997.
  • "Bezpowrotnie utracona leworecznosc (The Irreverible Loss of Left-Handedness)". Cracow: WL, 1998.
  • "Pod Mocnym Aniolem (By the powerful angel)", Cracow: WL, 2000.
  • "Opowieści wigilijne (Christmas Tales)" (with Olga Tokarczuk and Andrzej Stasiuk). Czarna Ruta, 2000.
  • "Upadek człowieka pod Dworcem Centralnym (The Fall of a Man at the Foot of Central Station)" 2002 "(more...)"
Screen Adaptations: Selected translations
  • English: "His current Woman" (from "Other pleasures"), Hydra Books, 2002.
  • German: "Andere Lüste (Other pleasures)". Berlin: Volk und Welt, 2000; "Zum starken Engel (By the powerful angel)", München: Luchterhand Literaturverlag, 2002.

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