The Polish Book Institute

A volume of Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher stories, Ostatnie życzenie (“The Last Wish”), has been published by the Egyptian publishing house Aser Al-Kotob. The author of the translation is Josef Sh'hadeh. The translation was supported by the Book Institute under the ©POLAND Translation Programme.

The Last Wish is a volume of short stories by Andrzej Sapkowski about the famous Witcher Geralt of Rivia, which includes the works: Głos rozsądku (“The Voice of Reason”), Wiedźmin (“The Witcher”), Ziarno prawdy (“A Grain of Truth”), Mniejsze zło (“The Lesser Evil”), Kwestia ceny (“A Question of Price”), Kraniec świata (“The Edge of the World”), and Ostatnie życzenie (“The Last Wish”). Together with the short stories from the volume Miecz przeznaczenia (“Sword of Destiny”), they form the introduction to the five-volume Witcher saga, but they can also be read successfully on their own.

Andrzej Sapkowski is one of the most eminent Polish fantasy writers, author of the books about the Witcher Geralt, as well as, among others, the so-called Hussite trilogy, which includes the novels Narrenturm (“The Tower of Fools”), Boży bojownicy (“Warriors of Gods”), and Lux perpetua (“Light Perpetual”). Thanks to CD Projekt Red studio's adaptation of The Witcher's adventures into computer games, his work is known and admired around the world.

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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.