Publication Date: 12th September 2024

Warsaw Tales is an anthology of short stories and non-fiction set in the Polish capital. Beginning in 1911 with Boleslaw Prus’ Apparitions, the collected stories provide a chronological account of the city’s tumultuous and dramatic history.

Each story captures a phase of Warsaw’s past, through the interwar period as a Polish republic, the Second World War and the city’s Nazi occupation, the post-war city in ruins and its rebuilding under the communist regime, and its new status as the capital of an independent Poland in 1989.

With each story set in a specific part of the city, the collection becomes a guidebook to Warsaw’s temporal, spatial, and psychological geography.

This collection features a wide variety of authors including Boleslaw Prus, Maria Kuncewiczowa, Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz, Ludwik Hering, Zofia Petersowa, Marek Hlasko, Kazimierz Orlos, Hanna Krall, Antoni Libera, Zbigniew Mentzel, Olga Tokarczuk, and Krzysztof Varga.

About Antonia Lloyd-Jones

Antonia Lloyd-Jones is a British translator of Polish literature based in London. She is best known as the long-time translator of Olga Tokarczuk’s works in English, including Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2019. Other recent awards include: ZAiKS prize for translation into English, 2017; Transatlantyk Award for the best promoter of Polish literature abroad, 2018; Gloria Artis silver medal awarded by the Polish Ministry of Culture for contribution to culture, 2019.

Warsaw Tales is available to Order now from Amazon here:

Warsaw Tales (City Tales): Amazon.co.uk: Constantine, Helen, Lloyd-Jones, Ms Antonia: 9780192855565: Books

Also avilable from other booskellers, please check with your preferred bookseller.

Read an interview with Olga Tokarczuk about her short story “Che Guevara” which features in the collection and is published for the first time in English translation here: Warsaw Tales: An interview with Olga Tokarczuk | OUPblog

Want event more inspirations for where to start with Polish Literature ?

See a selection of five recommended titles chosen by Antonia Lloyd-Jones here: Five of the best books translated from Polish | Books | The Guardian

Upcoming Book Talks with Antonia Lloyd-Jones about “Warsaw Tales”

Hear Antonia-Lloyd Jones talk about “Warsaw Tales” on the 14th of October at Hatchard’s Bookshop, on the 16th of October at Deptford Library and on the 17th of October at Ognisko Polskie- The Polish Hearth Club. See links to these events below.

14th October: https://tinyurl.com/235f2yzd

16th October: https://tinyurl.com/4tmy7b86

17th October: https://tinyurl.com/4h6kc7pm