On The Road To Babadag

Author : Andrzej Stasiuk
Publisher : HMH
ISBN 13 : 0547549121
Total Pages : 277 pages
Book Rating : 4.25/5 ( download)

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Download or read book On the Road to Babadag written by Andrzej Stasiuk and published by HMH. This book was released on 2011-06-16 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Journey through Poland, Ukraine, Slovenia, and other places neglected by tourists, with “an accomplished stylist with an eye for telling detail” (Irvine Welsh). Andrzej Stasiuk is a restless and indefatigable traveler. By car, train, bus, and ferry, he goes from his native Poland to Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Albania, Moldova, and Ukraine—to small towns and villages with strangely evocative names. “The heart of my Europe,” he tells us, “beats in Sokolów Podlaski and in Huși. It does not beat in Vienna.” In Comrat, a funeral procession moves slowly down the main street, the open coffin on a pickup truck, an old woman dressed in black brushing away the flies above the face of the deceased. In Soroca, he locates a baroque-Byzantine-Tatar-Turkish encampment, to meet Gypsies. And all the way to Babadag, between the Baltic Coast and the Black Sea, Stasiuk indulges his curiosity and his love for the forgotten places and people of Europe. “There isn’t quite a name for the region that holds the Polish writer Andrzej Stasiuk in thrall. The general drift is from ‘the land of King Ubu to the land of Count Dracula’, Poland to Romania. . . . Its nucleus is the landlocked centre of Central Europe; its protoplasm spreads like an amoeba through the Balkans. It cannot be convincingly mapped. . . . As travel writing, this is unconventional, but as literature profoundly authentic.” —The Independent (UK) “A mesmerizing, not-to-be-missed trek through a little-visited region of the world.” —Kirkus Reviews “A eulogy for the old Europe, the Europe both in and out of time, the Europe now lost in the folds of the map.” —The Guardian (UK)

Author : Dariusz Skórczewski
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 1580469787
Total Pages : 354 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Polish Literature and National Identity written by Dariusz Skórczewski and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Although for half a century East-Central Europe was part of the Soviet empire and was subject to its "civilizing" mission, its colonial status escaped the attention of most postcolonial critics. It still remains a blank spot in global studies of postcolonialism. In Polish Literature and Identity: A Postcolonial Landscape Dariusz Skórczewski argues for the advantages of applying postcolonial thought to Polish realities; at the same time, he modifes the theoretical framework worked out by other postcolonialists. The book seeks to reveal how Poland's two lines of experience-one of foreign hegemony since the late 1700s through 1989 (excluding a short period of sovereignty between the two world wars); and the other of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as itself a pre-modern empire-have shaped the culture of contemporary Polish society. The book focuses on identity transformations as reflected in Polish literature and critical discourses. It opens up the question of the identity of a postcolonial nation in contemporary East-Central Europe where globalization and cosmopolitanism clash with growing national sentiments, making predictions about a speedy advent of a post-national era premature. The first few chapters are devoted to the postcolonial theorizing of Poland in the East Central European context. This part of the book seeks relevant language(s) and registers for the analysis of the cultural condition of East Central Europe as a part of the world which slipped most postcolonial critics' attention. The second part of the book (Chapters 7-11) deal with the effects of the colonial encounter on Poles' self-perception and perception of Others, as reflected in Romantic and modern Polish literature. The book closes with a Postscript titled "Three Warnings," outlining a critique of postcolonial theory and criticism"--

Author : Ismail Kadare
Publisher : Skyhorse
ISBN 13 : 1628721308
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.00/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Chronicle in Stone written by Ismail Kadare and published by Skyhorse. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Masterful in its simplicity, Chronicle in Stone is a touching coming-of-age story and a testament to the perseverance of the human spirit. Surrounded by the magic of beautiful women and literature, a boy must endure the deprivations of war as he suffers the hardships of growing up. His sleepy country has just thrown off centuries of tyranny, but new waves of domination inundate his city. Through the boy’s eyes, we see the terrors of World War II as he witnesses fascist invasions, allied bombings, partisan infighting, and the many faces of human cruelty—as well as the simple pleasures of life. Evacuating to the countryside, he expects to find an ideal world full of extraordinary things, but discovers instead an archaic backwater where a severed arm becomes a talisman and deflowered girls mysteriously vanish. Woven between the chapters of the boy’s story are tantalizing fragments of the city’s history. As the devastation mounts, the fragments lose coherence, and we perceive firsthand how the violence of war destroys more than just buildings and bridges.

Author : Andrzej Stasiuk
Publisher : Deep Vellum Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1564786943
Total Pages : 146 pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Dukla written by Andrzej Stasiuk and published by Deep Vellum Publishing. This book was released on 2011-10-25 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At several points in the haunting Dukla, Andrzej Stasiuk claims that what he is trying to do is "write a book about light." The result is a beautiful, lyrical series of evocations of a very specific locale at different times of the year, in different kinds of weather, and with different human landscapes. Dukla, in fact, is a real place: a small resort town not far from where Stasiuk now lives. Taking an usual form—a short essay, a novella, and then a series of brief portraits of local people or events—this book, though bordering on the metaphysical, the mystical, even the supernatural, never loses sight of the particular time, and above all place, in which it is rooted. Andrzej Stasiuk is one of the leading writers of Poland's younger generation, and is currently one of the most popular Polish novelists in English translation.

Author : Andrzej Stasiuk
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 180 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Fado written by Andrzej Stasiuk and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this delightful collection of essays--by turns wry and reflective, wistful and witty--contemporary Polish writer Andrzej Stasiuk turns his attention to the villages and small towns of Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Albania, and of course his native Poland. Stasiuk travels to places no tourist would think of visiting, and in his characteristically lyrical prose, lays out his own unique and challenging perspective on the fascinating, unknown heart of Central Europe. He reminds us of the area's extraordinarily rich cultural and ethnic makeup, explores its literature, and shows how its history is inscribed permanently in its landscapes. Above all, he describes with fascination how past, present, and future co-exist and intertwine along the highways and back roads of the region.

Author : Simon Warren
Publisher : Frances Lincoln
ISBN 13 : 178101017X
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs written by Simon Warren and published by Frances Lincoln. This book was released on 2013-04-01 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cycling is Britain’s biggest boom sport and nowhere is the boom more evident than on the road: once seen as the preserve of serious racers, the road bike has recently found a new lease of life due to the popularity of challenge rides and Sportives. It is now possible for cyclists of all abilities to ride a well marked, well marshalled event just about any weekend of the year, usually based around one, two or sometimes as many as ten fearsome hills. For the first time, here is a pocket-sized guide to the 100 greatest climbs in the land, the building blocks for these rides, written by a cyclist for cyclists. From lung busting city centre cobbles to leg breaking windswept mountain passes, this guide locates the roads that have tested riders for generations and worked their way into cycling folklore. Whether you’re a leisure cyclist looking for a challenge or an elite athlete trying to break records stick this book in your pocket and head for the hills. To watch a video of Simon Warren in action click here

Author : Andrzej Stasiuk
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 154 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Tales of Galicia written by Andrzej Stasiuk and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poetry. Translation. Seemingly a set of prose ballads about the southeastern tip of Poland, TALES OF GALICIA brilliantly blurs the line between the short-story genre and the novel, while giving a vivid, poetic portrait of an imaginary village that was once part of a vibrant collective farm system. It is a part of Poland that - once inhabited by Poles, Ukrainians, and Jews - suddenly became homogenous after the war. Those who came to live in this region formed their own peculiar culture that lacked any sort of historical connection to what had preceded it. The village became depressed, its inhabitants largely unemployed and spending most of their time drinking in the pub. But rather than dark, naturalistic dirge, Stasiuk exhibits a Hrabalian flare for language and description that turns the banality and drudgery of these lives into poetry, with a final redemption scene that is at once comical, moving, and starkly beautiful.

Author : Andrzej Stasiuk
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781852426675
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book White Raven written by Andrzej Stasiuk and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An adventure story and a reflection of the experience of a generation, White Raven is a tale of childhood friends, cast adrift by the tide of change that swept through Poland during the 1980s. Following the accidental death of a policeman, the men go on the run. The urgent flight through the desolate winter mountains abruptly ends with a climax as shocking as it is symbolic. White Raven won the prestigious Fundacja Koscielskich Award. o First English translation of the Polish Kerouac o Cult novel of the post-communist generation o Ad in Book Forum Andrzej Stasiuk was born in 1960 and lives in Poland. His first book, The Walls of Hebron, is a collection of twelve stories about prison, based on the experience of his desertion from the army.

Author : Jonathan Arlan
Publisher : Skyhorse
ISBN 13 : 1510709762
Total Pages : 245 pages
Book Rating : 4.68/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mountain Lines written by Jonathan Arlan and published by Skyhorse. This book was released on 2017-02-14 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times best summer travel book recommendation A nonfiction debut about an American’s solo, month-long, 400-mile walk from Lake Geneva to Nice. In the summer of 2015, Jonathan Arlan was nearing thirty. Restless, bored, and daydreaming of adventure, he comes across an image on the Internet one day: a map of the southeast corner of France with a single red line snaking south from Lake Geneva, through the jagged brown and white peaks of the Alps to the Mediterranean sea—a route more than four hundred miles long. He decides then and there to walk the whole trail solo. Lacking any outdoor experience, completely ignorant of mountains, sorely out of shape, and fighting last-minute nerves and bad weather, things get off to a rocky start. But Arlan eventually finds his mountain legs—along with a staggering variety of aches and pains—as he tramps a narrow thread of grass, dirt, and rock between cloud-collared, ice-capped peaks in the High Alps, through ancient hamlets built into hillsides, across sheep-dotted mountain pastures, and over countless cols on his way to the sea. In time, this simple, repetitive act of walking for hours each day in the remote beauty of the mountains becomes as exhilarating as it is exhausting. Mountain Lines is the stirring account of a month-long journey on foot through the French Alps and a passionate and intimate book laced with humor, wonder, and curiosity. In the tradition of trekking classics like A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, The Snow Leopard, and Tracks, the book is a meditation on movement, solitude, adventure, and the magnetic power of the natural world.

Author : Dorota Koczanowicz
Publisher : Rodopi
ISBN 13 : 9401209308
Total Pages : 158 pages
Book Rating : 4.04/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Discussing Modernity. written by Dorota Koczanowicz and published by Rodopi. This book was released on 2013 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Martin Jay is one of America's leading intellectual historians. His work spans almost all important questions concerning the subject of modernity. Outstanding Polish scholars engage in a dialogue with Jay’s work, discussing significant problems of modernity and postmodernity. The book offers a broad panorama of contemporary thought approached from various angles. It is also a unique exercise of intercultural intellectual dialogue covering many areas from literature to politics. The book also includes an essay on photography by Martin Jay and his detailed response to the other contributors, which has the character of an extended conversation with them. The book can serve as an assessment of the uptake of Jay’s ideas, and equally well as a general introduction to the genealogy of modernity and postmodernity.