Katarzyna Leżeńska

A Stone in the Heart

Excerpt

Of the female writers who made their debut in about 2000, Leżeńska is one of the first to try to broaden the range of themes and genres of books aimed mainly at women. But not only; "A Stone in the Heart" is a psychological drama, in which gender equality applies, because one of the narrative threads is assigned to a man, and the other to a woman.
The story of Dasha and Marcin starts at the moment where most romantic books usually end. The thirty-something-year-old heroes meet at a class reunion, finally declare their long concealed love for each other, but are desperately scared of a permanent relationship. The process of coming to terms with traumatic experiences, failed marriages and a whole heap of other obstacles begins. On top of the psychological barriers there are also geographical ones, because Marcin has been living in the United States for some years, so for him returning to Poland would mean losing everything he has managed to achieve. Nonetheless the lovers overcome most of the obstacles, and the tale seems to be tending towards a banal family idyll. But that is just half the drama, because at this point Pola comes on the scene, Dasha’s teenage daughter. And then fate, which treats the heroes to yet another, this time tragic test of their emotions.
This novel’s greatest virtue is its psychological refinement. Each gesture seems natural, and each sentence sounds like a spontaneous utterance. Leżeńska has taken such great care with the authenticity of her characters and situations that the reader inevitably follows their ups and downs in a state of suspense, which also derives from the fact that one would like to catch them out in some grand, inappropriately “literary” behaviour. But it’s impossible – not only the main protagonists, but all the characters are three-dimensional and credible. Thus the unusual combination of quite trivial dilemmas with real tragedy also becomes credible. The drama is set in a local context, which affects the course of the action, but it also has a universal dimension.

Marta Mizuro