The Graveyard by Marek Hlasko

The Graveyard by Marek Hlasko

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.

Marek Hlasko (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 The Eighth Day of the Week, and two other novels, The Graveyard and Next Stop--Paradise. But when publishers refused to bring out his books, Hlasko traveled to Paris and published them in the ü¾Ž–”¼migrü¾Ž–”¼ 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 Hlasko 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, Hlasko 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 Hlasko'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.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781612192949
ISBN 10	1612192947
Title	The Graveyard
Author	Marek Hlasko
Series	Neversink
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Melville House Publishing
Year published	2013-12-03
Number of pages	160
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.