A messenger, a Mal’ak, an angel of death has come to hear the tales of Sonya’s life: a story of a bloody rag and of an old dog in a collar with Gothic letters, of the greatest of wars, of hatred and humiliation. But above all, a story of desire and forbidden love, powerful, inconceivable, transcending language and the world. Of the love of a beautiful girl for an invader in a black uniform. Sonya is a great yet intimate, simple yet difficult, subdued yet highly emotional, pacifist yet brutal story filled with love. The author uses the convention of the Iwartime romance to speak of “times past” and “now”; of “here” and “there”; of the hell and paradise of memory. Ignacy Karpowicz has another surprise in store for us, delighting us more than ever, and proving that, following the successes of his previous books, he has entered the literary super leagues to stay.

“Karpowicz’s brilliant idea is constantly confronting the protagonists with foreignness and the inexpressibility of experience. As always in Karpowicz, everything is in inverted commas, touched with irony and self-effacement, lined with a fear of immediacy, sentimentality, or stating the obvious. As such, we trust Sonya, and we also approach it with suspicion – which is just what Ignacy Karpowicz would like us to do”.

Dariusz Nowacki, a review from the Book Institute web site

“As we know, Karpowicz creates perhaps the best female figures in contemporary prose. And when Sonya speaks of love and death, Karpowicz delves into tones he has never before tapped into. There appears a sort of lyricism that takes you by the throat, without being kitsch”.

Justyna Sobolewska, Polityka

“Sonya’s malicious mastery is in its weave of melodramatic illusion and cynical delusion. This novel is a trap”.

Przemysław Czapliński, Gazeta Wyborcza

“Sonya is a book that can fascinate. Karpowicz has, after all, a remarkable gift – the gift of being able to tell intriguing stories that crackle with sharp observations”.

Andrzej Horubała, Do Rzeczy

Release date: 2014
Pages: 208
ISBN: 978-83-08-05353-9
Rights sold: Belarus (Literaturny Dom Lovhinau) Bulgaria (Matcom) France (Noir sur Blanc) Germany (Berlin Verlag) Macedonia (Begemot) Serbia (Plato Publishing) Spain (Rayo Verde) Ukraine (Komora) World English (Dalkey Archive Press)


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Other covers

Ignacy Karpowicz, "Sońka", Publisher: Berlin Verlag, May 2017

Sonya

Ignacy Karpowicz

A messenger, a Mal’ak, an angel of death has come to hear the tales of Sonya’s life: a story of a bloody rag and of an old dog in a collar with Gothic letters, of the greatest of wars, of hatred and humiliation. But above all, a story of desire and forbidden love, powerful, inconceivable, transcending language and the world. Of the love of a beautiful girl for an invader in a black uniform. Sonya is a great yet intimate, simple yet difficult, subdued yet highly emotional, pacifist yet brutal story filled with love. The author uses the convention of the Iwartime romance to speak of “times past” and “now”; of “here” and “there”; of the hell and paradise of memory. Ignacy Karpowicz has another surprise in store for us, delighting us more than ever, and proving that, following the successes of his previous books, he has entered the literary super leagues to stay.

“Karpowicz’s brilliant idea is constantly confronting the protagonists with foreignness and the inexpressibility of experience. As always in Karpowicz, everything is in inverted commas, touched with irony and self-effacement, lined with a fear of immediacy, sentimentality, or stating the obvious. As such, we trust Sonya, and we also approach it with suspicion – which is just what Ignacy Karpowicz would like us to do”.

Dariusz Nowacki, a review from the Book Institute web site

“As we know, Karpowicz creates perhaps the best female figures in contemporary prose. And when Sonya speaks of love and death, Karpowicz delves into tones he has never before tapped into. There appears a sort of lyricism that takes you by the throat, without being kitsch”.

Justyna Sobolewska, Polityka

“Sonya’s malicious mastery is in its weave of melodramatic illusion and cynical delusion. This novel is a trap”.

Przemysław Czapliński, Gazeta Wyborcza

“Sonya is a book that can fascinate. Karpowicz has, after all, a remarkable gift – the gift of being able to tell intriguing stories that crackle with sharp observations”.

Andrzej Horubała, Do Rzeczy

Release date: 2014
Pages: 208
ISBN: 978-83-08-05353-9
Rights sold: Belarus (Literaturny Dom Lovhinau) Bulgaria (Matcom) France (Noir sur Blanc) Germany (Berlin Verlag) Macedonia (Begemot) Serbia (Plato Publishing) Spain (Rayo Verde) Ukraine (Komora) World English (Dalkey Archive Press)


Other covers

Ignacy Karpowicz, "Sońka", Publisher: Berlin Verlag, May 2017