 | Bibliography (including literary works only):
- [under the pseudonym Max Lars] Ludzie-skorpiony [Scorpion People] (a novel), Bydgoszcz: Pomorze, 1984.
- [under the pseudonym Max Lars] Człowiek-litera [The Letter Man] (a novel), Bydgoszcz: Pomorze, 1989.
- Krótka historia pewnego żartu. Sceny z Europy Środkowowschodniej [The Short History of a Joke – Scenes from Central-Eastern Europe] (a novel in essays), Kraków: Oficyna Literacka, 1991.
- Hanemann (a novel), Gdańsk: Marabut, 1995.
- Esther (a novel), Gdańsk: Tytuł, 1999.
- [as co-author with Krystyna Lars] Wspólna kąpiel [A Shared Bath] (stories), Gdańsk: Tytuł, 2001
- Złoty pelikan [The Golden Pelican] (a novel), Gdańsk: Tytuł, 2003.
- Kartki z dziennika [Sheets from a Diary], Gdańsk: Tytuł, 2004.
- Żona prezydenta [President's wife], Gdańsk: Tytuł, 2005
- Dolina Radości (The Valley of Joy), Gdańsk: Tytuł, 2006.
- Dziennik dla dorosłych (Diary for Adults), Gdańsk: Tytuł, 2008.
- Samobójstwo jako doświadczenie wyobraźni, Gdańsk: Tytuł, 2010.
Translations:
Czech:
- Hanemann (Hanemann), transl. Peter Vidlak. Brno: HOST, 2005.
English:
- Death in Danzig (Hanemann), transl. Philip Boehm. Orlando: Harcourt, 2004; London: Random House Secker @ Warburg, 2005; London: Vintage Books, 2006; Harvest Books, 2005
French:
- Le Pélican d'or [Złoty pelikan], transl. Frederique Laurent, Circe 2009
German:
- Die Gouvernante: Roman (Esther), transl. Renate Schmidgall. Berlin: Rowohlt, 2000.
- Die Gouvernante: Roman (Esther), transl. Renate Schmidgall. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt-Taschenbuch-Verl., 2003.
- Tod in Danzig: Roman (Hanemann), transl. Renate Schmidgall. Berlin: Rowohlt, 1997.
- Tod in Danzig: Roman (Hanemann), transl. Renate Schmidgall. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt-Taschenbuch-Verl., 1999.
- Der goldene Pelikan (Złoty pelikan), transl. Renate Schmidgall. München: Hanser, 2005; München: München Verlag Deutscher Taschenbuch, 2008
Hungarian:
- Hanemann (Hanemann), transl. Weber Kata. Pozsony: Kalligram, 2004.
- Arany Pelikan (Złoty pelikan), transl. Weber Katalin, Pozsony: Kalligram, 2007
Russian:
- Chaneman (Hanemann), transl. Ksienia Staroselskaja. Moskva: Izd-vo AST, 2003.
- Guvernantka (Esther), transl. Ksienia Staroselskaja. Moskva: Novoe Lit. Obozrenie, 2004.
Slovak:
- Hanemann (Hanemann). Roman, transl. Karol Chmel. Bratislava: Kalligram, 2005.
- Dolina radosti, (Dolina radości), transl. Karol Chmel. Bratislava: Kalligram, 2008
Swedish:
- Hanemann (Hanemann), transl. Lisa Mendoza-Åsberg. Stockholm: Albert Bonniers Vorlag, 2001.
- Guldpelikanen (Złoty pelikan), transl. Lisa Mendoza-Asberg. Stockholm: Albert Bonniers Vorlag, 2003
Spanish:
- El doctor Hanemann (Hanemann), transl. Jerzy Sławomirski, Anna Rubió. Barcelona: Acantilado, 2005.
- La pelikan de oro (Złoty pelikan), transl. Jerzy Sławomirski, Anna Rubió. Barcelona: Acantilado, 2007.
Romanian:
- Doctor Hanemann (Hanemann), transl. Constantin Geambasu, Bucureşti: Paralela 45, 2005
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Chwin Stefan(born 1949) – author of fiction and essays, historian of literature and professor at Gdańsk University. He made his debut as a writer of fiction, under the pseudonym Max Lars, with two fantasy adventure novels, Scorpion People (1985) and The Letter Man (1989). He gained attention with a book that lay midway between personal documentary and essay, The Short History of a Joke (1991), in which he recreated the cultural climate of his own childhood. It also revealed his fascination with past and present Gdańsk, a city with a thousand years of history, where cultures, languages and religions have always intermingled. Chwin was particularly interested in the relatively fresh traces left behind by the former (German) citizens of the Free City of Danzig. He tells the story of one of them, a fictional character of course, in his most acclaimed novel, Hanemann (1995). A wealth of plots and ideas, the novel is about the title hero, a Gdańsk doctor, who sinks into a depression following the death of his fiancée, and becomes a “living corpse”, although he does not have the courage to commit suicide. The upheavals of history, including the wartime destruction of Gdańsk and the takeover of the city by the Polish administration happen all around him. Finally a young woman who has been repatriated from the eastern borderlands of former Poland shakes him out of his torpor. She is another of life’s shipwrecks, and her suicide attempt, which Hanemann averts, is the turning point in his own life story. This novel was enthusiastically received by the critics and won lots of prizes. It is still regarded as one of the major works of late 20th century Polish fiction. The heroes of Chwin’s next novel (Esther, 1999) are members of his own grandmother’s family, the Celińskis. Living in Warsaw at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, they remind us of the Buddenbrooks in Thomas Mann’s novel; like them they are solid middle-class people who have made a fortune in the corn trade, cosmopolitan, liberal, fond of a comfortable lifestyle and the best of everything. Into this wealthy home comes Esther, a beautiful, clever governess. At first she is full of joy at life, but one day she sinks into a state of torpor like the one that paralysed Hanemann. The story of her mysterious illness, followed by her equally mysterious recovery, is simply fictional scaffolding for the work, which the writer has filled with digressions that constitute a critical review of the leading ideas underpinning 20th-century modernity. In early 2003 The Golden Pelican appeared, set in the first few years of our century in Gdańsk. This book could easily be mistaken for a realistic moral novel about a lecturer on law who becomes a tramp and experiences the darkest side of reality. But at the same time the author’s intentions are much greater; what he has created is a contemporary parable, a sort of legend modelled on the mediaeval tale of Saint Aleksy. And so Jakub, the main hero of this allegory, is convinced that because of a mistake he made during an entrance exam, a would-be student has killed herself. Though this fact is only the supposition of the oversensitive Jakub, it torments him and turns his life into a nightmare. As in Esther, the story of the refined professor’s downfall is only a fictional excuse, because the most important things in the book are the digressive, meditative bits; what really interests Chwin is the moral condition of modern man. He asks what has happened to the soul of man today, to his religious faith, his sense of responsibility and his conscience. The book resounds with the voice of protest, which cannot be ignored – protest against a world without God, love and sensitivity.
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There are more than 28,000 publishers registered in Poland. However, the market is highly concentrated. The 200 largest publishing firms still hold almost 98 per cent of it. More »
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