Literary programme

The world we live in is changing at a breathtaking pace – while at the same time, realities within society are drifting further and further apart, to the point where not even the individual lives in a coherent world anymore. With biting wit, but also great compassion, Dorota Masłowska captures precisely this condition, both comic and deadly serious. Her characters – a macho banker on the prowl, an advertising filmmaker on a cocaine binge, a boy fishing and a swimmer in distress who share a mysterious connection, a woman who finds herself through total self-exposure in a shabby hotel – inhabit a world of appearances and loneliness. And yet, In Paradise, they emerge as complex, deeply drawn characters.

Few writers capture the present quite like Dorota Masłowska. Everything feels close and yet remains unreachable and fragmented. In her unique way, she traces the cultural patterns and clichés that create an artificial world. Through her language, she reveals that world to us – painfully at first, then with a consoling clarity that brings insight.

Moderation: Martina Kutkova