Featuring: Farah Ahamed, SJ Bradley, Agnieszka Dale, Jacek Dukaj, Giles Foden, Zoe Gilbert, Jan Krasnowolski, Richard Niland, Wojciech Orliński, Grażyna Plebanek, Sarah Schofield, Kamila Shamsie & Paul Theroux

A merchant sailor works for a decade, captaining a yacht up and down the coasts of Malaysia, in the hope that his crooked employer will stay true to a promise…

Years after a pandemic sweeps across Europe, wiping out its all-white population, a pilgrim returns to his Polish birthplace in search of the only other non-white kid he knew at school…

An inscrutable hotelier loses his composure when a secret passage is discovered in his hotel, leading to a mysterious room and a previously hidden existence…

Born in what is now Ukraine to Polish parents, naturalised as a British citizen, and schooled on the high seas of international commerce, Joseph Conrad was a true citizen of the world. His novels bore witness to the dehumanising repercussions of empire, explored a world in which state-sponsored terrorism ruined individuals’ lives, and pioneered complex narrative structures and subjective points-of-view in what was to become the first wave of literary modernism.

To mark his 160th birthday, authors and critics from Britain, Poland and elsewhere have come together to celebrate his legacy with new pieces of fiction and non-fiction. Conrad felt that the writer’s task was to offer ‘that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask.’ In an age of increasing isolationism, these celebrations remind you of the value of such glimpses.

Commissioned to celebrate the work of Conrad on the 160th anniversary of his birth on 3rd December, as part of the Joseph Conrad Year 2017, the book has been published with the support from the Polish Cultural Institute, the Polish Book Institute, and the British Council.

Conradology
Edited by Becky Harrison & Magda Raczyńska
With an introduction by Robert Hampson
Published by Comma Press
Publication date: 30 November 2017
ISBN: 9781910974339