The Polish Book Institute

Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski's Inny świat (“A World Apart”), translated by Kenan Efendic, has been published in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The publication of the translation was supported by the Book Institute under the ©POLAND Translation Programme.

Drugi svijet, as reads the title of Herling-Grudzinski's book in Bosnian, has just been published by the Izdavačka kuća Vrijeme publishing house.

A World Apart remains one of the most important testimonies written down by prisoners of Soviet gulags, as well as a classic of Polish literature. In this book, Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski exposed the mechanisms of Soviet totalitarianism in its most basic form. A World Apart is at the same time a harrowing portrayal of what happens to human beings in border conditions. Albert Camus believed that Herling-Grudziński's most famous book 'should be published and read in all countries of the world'.

Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski is one of the most outstanding Polish writers of the 20^th century. Apart from A World Apart, his most important and widely read works include Dziennik pisany nocą (“Volcano and Miracle"), published in several parts, as well as short stories such as Wieża ("The Tower"), Pieta dell`Isola, and Książe Niezłomny ("The Invincible Prince").

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The ©Poland Translation Programme is one of the Book Institute's flagship programmes. Its aim is to promote Polish literature around the world by providing financial support for the publication of Polish books in translation into foreign languages. Foreign publishers may use the funding grant to finance part of the work's publication costs, including, among other things, the translation of the work from Polish into another language, the purchase of copyright licences, and the printing of the book. In 2023 alone, we have subsidised 229 foreign editions of Polish books to be published by publishing houses from 46 countries, to which we have allocated almost PLN 5 million. In all editions of the programme, we have already subsidised a total of more than 3,000 translations of Polish books into foreign languages.

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