Ignacy Karpowicz (b. 1976) is a fiction writer and journalist. His first publication was the novel Rotten [Niehalo] (2006). Its protagonist, a student of Polish literature starts working for a local newspaper in Poland’s eastern city of Białystok.

Initially one may expect to be dealing with a sociological report on the condition and consciousness of young Poles, but at some point halfway through the book slips into what came to be known as the signature quality of Karpowicz’s early style, i.e. grotesque deformation, which nearly totally obliterates the reality as we know it.   Karpowicz’s next novel, Miracle [Cud] (2007) is based on a surprising yet eccentric plot idea: even though the main character dies, run over by a car, his death seems uncertain – at least in the eyes of a young doctor, who has fallen for him. In terms of literary form, The Miracle appears to be a sort of a perverse play on the conventions of popular romance. 2007 saw also the publication of The Emperor’s New Flower (and Bees), a self-referential and, to some extent, experimental tale about journeys to Ethiopia.

With Gestures [Gesty], published a year later, the author broke new ground, form-wise: no traces of grotesque there, the ironic tone disappeared. This time Karpowicz offered his readers a nearly ascetic narrative: simple in terms of plot, focused on one problem only – the experience of despair. Its forty-year-old protagonist returns to his family house to look after his dying mother. He spends there several months examining his own failed life. Soon enough he too is diagnosed with a terminal condition.

The true watershed for Karpowicz’s literary career was the publication of Balladynas and Romances [Balladyny i romanse] (2010): a sprawling and ambitious novel, which hit its moment, given the heated debate post-secularist debates of the time. Just like in his debut, the early chapters of the book may be misleading. Initially we seem to be witnessing an affair of a 50-year old woman with a 19-year old violent hoodlum. Over time, however, more and more characters appear, the story devolves into an absurdist farce: gods from several different pantheons descend to the Earth and mix in the affairs of mere mortals.

-ities [Ości] (2013) fully proved Karpowicz’s literary class. The novel’s plot leads us through erotic twists and turns of several reasonably wealthy middle class types. The protagonists enter into various romantic relationships with one another, rendering null and void such categories as sex and age: heterosexual relations are complemented with homosexual ones, there is a considerable age gap between some of the lovers. In general, the author suggests, the thing is that received models of family or, for that matter, human relationships, have gone bankrupt in a way, or at least have become insufficient. He therefore makes his characters open to new possibilities, renegotiate the terms on which one can pursue the so-called happiness.

Sońka (2014), on the other hand, is a powerful yet terse, simple yet demanding narrative. Mostly quiet on the surface, it is teeming with emotions. Pacifist in spirit, it tells the story of love in times of war.

Karpowicz’s most recent novel, People from the Skies [Ludzie z nieba] (2024) is inspired by the legendary Polish aviators Franciszek Żwirko and Stanisław Wigura. The year is 1905. Kora spends her childhood in Bieniakonie, a town south of Vilnius. She has a twin brother and six sisters. Ten years on, when war refugees pass through the town, the world the girl has known comes to an end. In People from the Skies Karpowicz dislodges the pillars of a traditionally conceived identity, crosses the boundaries of time, and reminds us that the most important thing in our lives is other people.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Niehalo, Wołowiec: Wydawnictwo Czarne, 2006.
• Cud, Wołowiec: Wydawnictwo Czarne, 2007.
• Nowy Kwiat Cesarza (i pszczoły), Warszawa: PIW, 2007.
• Gesty, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2008.
• Balladyny i romanse, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2010.
• Ości, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2013.
• Sońka, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2014.
• Miłość, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2017.
• Cicho, cichutko, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2021.
• Ludzie z nieba, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2024.

TRANSLATIONS TO OTHER LANGUAGES

English:

• Sonka [Sońka], transl. Maya Zakrzewska-Pim, Victoria, TX: Dalkey Archive, 2018.
• Gestures [Gesty], transl. Maya Zakrzewska-Pim, Victoria, TX: Dalkey Archive, 2017.

Belarussian:

• Сонька [Sońka], transl. Maria Martysevich, Mińsk: Lohvinau, 2018.

Bulgarian:

• K-osti [Ości], transl. Liliâ Račeva, Sofiâ: Izdatelstvo "Geâ-Libris", 2017.

Croatian:

• Sonjka [Sońka], transl. Emilio Nuić, Zagreb : Hena com, 2019.

French:

• Sonia [Sońka], transl. Caroline Raszka-Dewez, Lausanne: Les Éditions Noir sur blanc, 2014, 2017.

Spanish:

• Cuando los dioses bajaron a Varsovia y alrededores [Balladyny i romanse], transl. Francisco Javier Villaverde González, Barcelona: Rayo Verde, 2016.
• Sońka [Sońka], transl. Francisco Javier Villaverde González, Barcelona: Rayo Verde, 2020.

Macedonian:

• Соња [Sońka], transl. Filip Dimevski, Skopje: Begemot, 2017.

Lithuanian:

• Gestai [Gesty], transl. Kazys Uscila, Vilnius: Vaga, 2011.

German:

• Sonka [Sońka], transl. Katharina Kowarczyk, München : Berlin Verlag in der Piper Verlag, 2017.

Slovenian:

• Baladine in romance [Balladyny i romanse], transl. Jana Unuk, Ljubljana: Mladinska Knjiga Zalożba, 2014.
• Osti [Ości], transl. Jana Unuk, Vnanje Gorice: Kulturno-umetniško društvo Police Dubove, 2017.

Ukrainian:

• Sońka, transl. Ostap Śliwiński, Kijów: Komora, 2016.

Hungarian:

• Égiek és földiek [Ballady i romanse], transl. Gábor Körner, Budapeszt: Typotex, 2012.
• Csoda [Cud], transl. Gábor Körner, Budapeszt: Typotex, 2014.
• Szálkák [Ości], transl. Gábor Körner, Budapeszt: Typotex, 2017.