Writer.
Mikołaj Łozinski studied sociology at Sorbonne University; author of fiction, his texts are translated into many languages.
His works include “Reisefieber” (2006), “Th Book” (2011) and short stories for children “Fairytales for Ida”. In his autobiographical novel “The Book” (published in 2011), Mikołaj Łozinski writes about the story of several
generations of Polish-Jewish family; he talks about the holocaust, Communist terror, persecution of Jews in 1968, breaking free from Communist regime; characters of the book witness the grand events of the XX Century.
Mikołaj Łozinski has been awarded with Koscielski Foundation Award (2007), Passport of Polityka (2011), and Janis Baltvilks International Prize in Children's Literature (2013). Mikołaj Łozinski’s participation in Tbilisi International Literature
Festival is supported by Polish Book Institute (Poland).
Keys
Extract from “The Book"
When my grandfather fell over in the street and died next
to his red Lada Samara with the key in his hand, my
grandmother saw him through the window. Then she went
to the kitchen window, saw the same thing, and went back
into the living room.
She sat on a low stool, changed her glasses and dialled
a phone number. “Darling,” she said to my older brother.
“How are you? Are you warm enough in your den? You
know, I think there’s something wrong with your grandfather.
He’s been lying in the street for ten minutes now and
he’s not moving. Perhaps you could come over?”
She watched from upstairs, as some strangers leaned
over her ex-husband. Snow was falling on his army uniform
and medals. His leather briefcase had slipped from
under his arm and fallen open. A glass jar must have broken
inside it, because there was honey spilling onto the
pavement.
They were married for thirty years.
More and more people had gathered on the spot. They
covered him. Someone pointed up at the first floor, at the
dirty windows in my grandfather’s flat. Grandmother instinctively
took a step back into the depths of the living
room.
translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones