Substance: Michał Witkowski in conversation with Paulina Małochleb

We invite you to an author's meeting with Michał Witkowski around his latest, long-awaited novel “Substantia”. The conversation will be led by Paulina Małochleb.

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, horror 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.

For whom: AdultFree AdmissionRegistration is not required

photo: Łukasz Sokół/Jakub Ociepa

Michał Witkowski — one of the most important contemporary Polish writers. Winner of the “Polityka” Passport, Gdynia Literary Award, two-time finalist of the Nike Prize and winner of Nike Readers 2024. Honored with the Adam Mickiewicz Award as part of the Poznan Literary Award (2025). Author of famous novels, including Lubiew, Barbara Radziwiłłówna z Jaworzn-Szczakowa, Drwala, Fynf und cfancyś, Tango, and Autobiography. Faith. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages, and his novels have been staged in theaters in Poland and around the world.

Paulina Małochleb — literary critic, researcher and lecturer. Winner of the Prime Minister's Award, the Krakow Prize of the UNESCO City of Literature, scholarship holder of the “Young Poland” program of the National Center of Culture. Author of the book “Muscles I have from love. On Motherhood”, “Rewriting History” and the blog ksiazkinaostro.pl, she published, among others, in “Polityka”, “Krytyka Polityczna”, dwutygodnik.com, “Nowe Książki” and “Tróczość”. He teaches at the Faculty of Polish Studies of the Jagiellonian University, curates literary projects at the Bunker Sztuki, and directs the Communication Center at the International Cultural Center in Krakow.

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