Magdalena Katarzyna Bajor “NIEDOM” — author's meeting

The Zameczek Cultural Center invites you to a unique meeting with Magda Katarzyna Bajor, author of her debut novel “Niedom”.

This is a special meeting, because part of the story takes place in the post-war Strupice, and the book also includes Willa Erfurt — today's Castle.

We will talk about the book, the history of the place and how the local past became part of the literary tale.

Magdalena Katarzyna Bajor — a graduate of the Wrocław University of Technology. He has a technical education, but for years he has lived in literature, art and history, including the history of Lower Silesia. Born in this region, she knows how complicated identity issues are here, how difficult it has been and is to look for your own place on earth. For years he has been following the fate of the people who live here, their emotions, their sensitivity, the ambiguity of human characters and choices that are rarely obvious. In the past, she wrote prose and poetry, which never made it to the publishing houses.

Niedom, a literary debut, is rooted in real Lower Silesian stories, sometimes hidden for years, too painful to talk about directly.

Immediately after the war, Helena and Henryk pack up their modest possessions and move from Małopolska to the reclaimed lands. They settle in Strupice near Jelenia Góra. They hope, they have each other, they are waiting for the second daughter. But Lower Silesia just after the war is a melting pot in which languages, customs and traumas of people from everywhere mingle — and in which the new Poland turns out to be different from the one dreamed of. Post-war chaos and a dangerous mix of human attitudes, fears and grievances lead to a tragedy that proves more difficult to bear than the war itself. Its burden is passed on to the next generation.

Although the action takes place mainly in Lower Silesia, Niedom tells about experiences that could have happened wherever history has put people to the test. The dreams of the heroes do not reach greatness or glory, but boil down to the simplest and at the same time the most difficult desire to simply live.

It is a novel about what a house is, which needs to be created and which is lost, about the bond between mother and child, about fiasco, about hope built stubbornly on rubble. About the fact that the effects of every war, the former and the one today, last long after the shots are silent.

“After the war, displacement and loss of home, there are people and their stories. Niedom tells about them honestly, with remarkable precision. It is a book about uprooting and the need to belong, finding space for everyday life. Great, dense, mature and important debut.” — Łukasz Wojtusik/Alfabet Wojtusik

Moderator: Gabriela Stefanowicz