Author's meeting with Michał Witkowski

Author's meeting with Michał Witkowski and a book entitled “Substance”

THE FIRST AFTER THE AWARD-WINNING NIKE READERS AND THE AWARD TO THEM. MICKIEWICZ'S “AUTOBIOGRAPHY” LONG-AWAITED NOVEL BY THE MASTER OF POLISH PROSE

Witkowski returns to fiction — he does so with impetuosity and literary audacity. Like the Marquis de Merteuil, he intrigues, seduces the reader and invites him to a court full of masks, rituals and violence.

In 1770, there is an unhealthy atmosphere in the Kristinopolski Palace — it is closer to shameless castles than to aristocratic manors. Among this sodomy and gomorah, Anna Potocka — the wife of the richest tycoon and the greatest devotee in the castle — deftly pulls the strings. The worst thugs dance when he plays them, and for this danse macabre all those who have a stake with Potocki are invited. So they pack as if there is no tomorrow, and behind the scenes Anna plans for whom to spend her dull son, how to punish promiscuous manors and how to recover the stolen diamond.

In this world, revenge, greed and passions rule. Manners are breaking down, the Republic is sinking, terror is coming, but everyone continues to play their roles. The national situation is getting complicated and more and more like the last dance on the Titanic. And in the shadow of great events, the tragedy of a girl, in love with the heir of Potocki, unfolds.

This is a moment of solstice strangely close to our times. Nothing is what it seems. The author crosses the boundaries of genres and, in the footsteps of Gombrowicz, undertakes a perverse game with the romantic tradition. And he does it in an extremely ironic way. Something in the shape of a national opera à rebours is being created.

The meeting will be organized as part of the project “A question of culture — meetings, workshops, discussions about literature”. The project was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund — a state special purpose fund.

Place: Library Pod Kolumnami (MBP main building), 12 Piłsudskiego Street