In his latest volume of short stories Henryk Grynberg deals, as in previous books, with the subject of war and the Holocaust. He does so this time, however, with a greater brevity of means, giving whatever preference to documentary evidence rather than literary parable. The events take place in Poland and a dozen other countries. Grynberg is the chronicler of others' fates, the subject of which is not just the Holocaust itself but the trauma in which those who experienced it live. The writer documents our cursed century where the question of individual guilt has disappeared, being replaced by collective criminality and immunity.
"The Germans came with Ukrainians and a long list of names. When father saw them approaching our house he ran out of the back door into the garden (...) He ran out without his jacket and did not say goodbye to us. And then he was no more." (Drohobycz, Drohobycz)
"The recording, recounting of stories is the saving of the memory of those who were not given to survive (...) But it is equally a tale of those who did survive and who, until the end of their days, must carry the burden of their fate, a task beyond the measure of man, in essence inhuman." (Arkadiusz Baglajewski: "Saved Through Memory," Nowe Ksiazki)
There are more than 31,000 publishers registered in Poland. However, the market is highly concentrated. The 300 largest publishing firms still hold almost 98 per cent of it. More »
