News

22.03.2022

Leipzig reads Polish literature

Despite the cancellation of the Leipziger Buchmesse (Leipzig Book Fair), numerous literary events are taking place in Leipzig this March as part of the initiative "Leipzig Reads Despite Everything", in which the Polish Institute in Leipzig and the Book Institute have also become involved.

The Polish Institute in Leipzig has prepared a series of meetings entitled "Leipzig Reads Polish Literature". In addition to a meeting devoted to Józef Piłsudski and the ‘Jahrbuch Polen 2022’, there was also a presentation – prepared in collaboration with the Book Institute - of the German translation of Zimowla (“The Hibernation of Bees”) by Dominika Słowik, with the participation of the author and the translator Alexandra Tobor. The meeting took place on 19 March at 21.00 at the Polish Institute.

In her second novel, after the very well-received Atlas: Doppelganger, Dominika Słowik masterfully blurs the boundaries between the possible and the impossible to take the reader into a thicket of unexplained everyday phenomena. A town in the Zmornicka Valley is full of mysteries. A body has been pulled from the lake, a father quits his job at the office to become a fortune teller, and the Beekeeper trains his hive. In his spare time, Misha imports some pot from Slovakia. Young Dygnar girl walks naked in the streets at night. The town residents are either waiting for the next miracle to happen or frantically search for treasure. Will they be able to open a long-closed door and discover a most carefully guarded secret? The mysterious town is increasingly shrouded in danger and thickening darkness.

The Book Institute supported the promotion of Dominika Słowik in the 'New Books from Poland 2020' campaign and also subsidised the translation of The Hibernation of Bees into German and Belarusian.