7 February 2023 – 19.00-20.30, Foyles Bookshop, Charing Cross Road

“She fell at his knees, her head shaking, and the tears spilled like peas down her old face, grey and furrowed as an autumn-ploughed field.”

To mark the first English translation in a century of a classic of twentieth century European literature, The Peasants, we’re joined by the translator Anna Zaranko alongside Hugh Welchman, the filmmaker behind an upcoming film adaptation, in a conversation chaired by Adam Mars-Jones.

Unfolding the romance and drama in the village of Lipce across four seasons, The Peasants follows the wealthy Boryna, his young bride Jagusia, his son Antek and a cast of richly drawn village peasants.

Władysław Reymont’s The Peasants was the 1924 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. It is a beautiful historical portrait of rural Poland and a thrilling story of family, love and community.

Anna Zaranko is the Polish-English translator of the new edition of The Peasants. She won the Found in Translation award in 2020 for her translation of Kornel Filipowicz’s The Memoir of an Anti-Hero.

Hugh Welchman is a filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. He was the joint winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Peter and the Wolf. Welchman co-directed Loving Vincent, which uses the same oil-painted technique as his upcoming adaptation of The Peasants, and received nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA. 

Anna and Hugh will be in conversation with novelist and critic Adam Mars-Jones. Adam’s first collection of stories, Lantern Lecture, won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1982. His most recent novels are Batlava Lake and Box Hill, both published by Fitzcarraldo. Noriko Smiling is a book-length study of Yasujiro Ozu’s classic film, Late Spring. Adam writes film reviews for the TLS.

The conversation will be followed by audience Q&A and a book signing.

Doors open from 6:45pm.

Tickets: £20 Book & Ticket, inc. a copy of The Peasants (RRP £16.99) / £8 General Admission

Venue: The Auditorium (Level 6) at Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road*

*Please note that the Auditorium at Foyles is fully accessible from the Ground floor lifts.

For Tickets:

Władysław Reymont’s The Peasants: Anna Zaranko, Hugh Welchman and Dorota Kobiela in Conversation with Adam Mars-Jones (foyles.co.uk)

Link to buy the book (various outlets):

The Peasants (penguin.co.uk)