The Graveyard

Description

This is a gritty tale about Communist Poland from one of the original 'Angry Young Men' Marek Hlasko. When Party member Franciszek Kowalski drunkenly insults a police man, his outburst is taken as criticism of the government, and he is both arrested and expelled from the Party. Kowalski, a true believer, attempts to rehabilitate himself by gathering testimonies from the men he fought alongside as an anti-Nazi partisan in the People's Army; but each meeting with his former comrades takes him further down into the underworld that has been there all along.

Author description

Marek Hłasko (1934-1969) was born in Warsaw, the only child of parents who divorced when he was three. He was kicked out of high school and worked a series of menial jobs. While a truck driver, he began to write articles for a local newspaper, and soon after joined the crusading magazine "Po Prostu" as the editor of the literary section. In 1956, his short story collection "A First Step in the Clouds "won him immediate acclaim. It was followed by T"he Eighth Day of the Week," and two other novels, "The Graveyard "and "Next Stop--Paradise." But when publishers refused to bring out his books, Hłasko traveled to Paris and published them in the emigre journal "Kultura." It was a fateful decision: the Polish authorities gave him the choice of returning home and renouncing his work or staying abroad forever. He chose the latter, and spent the rest of his life in Western Europe, Israel, and the United States. He developed a reputation as a hard drinker and brawler, and was often in and out of prisons and psychiatric clinics. In 1966, Roman Polanski brought Hłasko to Hollywood to work as a screenwriter, but while there, he got into a fight with the composer Krzysztof Komeda, who died from his injuries a few days later. Six months afterward, Hłasko died from a fatal mixture of alcohol and sleeping pills. He was thirty-five years old and the author of ten novels, several collections of short stories and essays, and a memoir. Norbert Guterman (1900-1984) also translated Hłasko's "The Eighth Day of the Week" and "Next Stop--Paradise." James Sallis is the author of "Drive" and the Lew Griffin series of crime novels, among many other books.