Wednesday 25 October, 6:30-8:30pm
Waterstones Gower Street
82 Gower Street, Bloomsbury
London WC1E 6EQ
£6/£4 book online
The characters in Agnieszka Dale's Fox Season stories all want to find greatness, until they realise that greatness isn't their thing. But what is?
Dale writes about being Polish; being outside Poland; being visible and invisible; a woman; from the East, from the West or from somewhere central. In turn she creates an intimate kingdom: a happy nation with no distinct nationality, a place where people still try, still believe.
A. M. Bakalar's Children of Our Age is insightful and unforgiving: a deeply human and timely story of Polish immigrants. Sweeping between their past in Poland and their present in Britain, this electrifying novel explores the ways unlikely encounters transform lives, the limits of loyalty, and love.
Join both authors this evening to celebrate their new books in conversation with journalist Liz Hoggard.
A.M. Bakalar was born in Poland and lives in London. Her first novel Madame Mephisto was published in 2012 and was a reader nomination for the 2012 Guardian First Book Award. In 2015 her short story ‘Woman of Your Dreams’ was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and her writing has appeared in The Guardian and The International New York Times. She has also appeared as a guest on BBC Radio 3 Night Waves, Proms Plus Literary and BBC Radio 4 At Home Abroad.
A tense and gripping thriller.
– Marina Lewycka, long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and short-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction
A.M.Bakalar eloquently exposes the tragic face of the immigrant experience; and this powerful story of exploited hope, perverse ambition and - surprisingly - redemption is one you will not forget. It is a tale for our time.
– William Brodrick, CWA Gold Dagger winner
Agnieszka Dale (née Surażyńska) is a Polish-born London-based author conceived in Chile. Her short stories have been selected for BBC Radio 4, Liars' League London, Tales of the Decongested and The Fine Line Short Story Collection. Her feature articles have been published by Stylist, and her song lyrics performed on BBC Radio 3's In Tune Live from Tate Modern. In 2013, Dale was awarded the Arts Council England TLC Free Reads Award. Her story 'The Afterlife of Trees' was shortlisted for the Carve Magazine Esoteric Short Story Contest and longlisted for the Fish Short Story Prize
Agnieszka Dale’s impressive debut depicts on a large canvas our current world of chaos. Her sharp, humorous, sensitive and metaphorical style confirms that a new exciting voice has arrived on the scene.
– Xiaolu Guo, nominated for the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction
Dale is between cultures, rooted in one, integrated into another, perfectly placed as observer and participant. She writes with an entrancing blend of distance and intimacy. In this country, she is an immigrant, but one who knows us and our language too well for comfort. Reading her, it feels that someone who has learned to be one of us, now does it better than we do. She knows what makes us laugh, and what makes us laughable.
– Jeremy Hardy, comedian