Anna Bikont's 2004 essay "My z Jedwabnego" was published in France early this year under the title "Le crime et le silence: Jedwabne 1941, la mémoire d'un pogrom dans la Pologne d'aujourd'hui" by Denoël Publishers. Translated by Anna Hurwic, it is an essay on contemporary Polish society in the context of a tragic history. A series of diary entries are interwoven with interviews with individuals who were witnesses to the massacre at Jedwabne. These bits and pieces create a vision of a Polish society broken by the painful memory of betrayal and murder. The two sides of Polish society - those who repent and those who continue a rhetoric of anti-Semitism while denying the historic proof of pogroms like the one that took place in Jedwabne in 1941. Le Monde's Jean-Jacques Bozonnet has called the book a voyage into the collective Polish memory.
In the novel category nominations went to Maxim Leo of Germany for"Histoire d’un allemand de l’est".
All five nominees were announced by a jury headed by British writer Julian Barnes in early November. The second candidate in the essay category was "Aux frontières de l’Europe" by Paolo Rumiza of Italy. In the novel category, Ignacio Martinez de Pisón of Spain was nominated for "El dia de mañana", along with Hugo Hamilton of Ireland for "Je ne suis pas d’ici".
The winner of the fifth edition of the competition is to be announced at the award ceremony on the 7th of December in Brussels, with representatives of the European Parliament and European Commission in attendance, including Jerzy Buzek and José Manuela Barroso.
The European Book Prize, which aims to promote European values and knowledge about the EU member states, is given out every year by a jury of journalists from various countries of the European Union. Winners receive 10,000 euros. Previous winners from Poland include Mariusz Szczygieł for "Gottland" in 2009.
Anna Bikont is a journalist and writer. In 1989 she co-founded the first independent newspaper in democratic Poland Gazeta Wyborcza. She is now a special correspondent for this newspaper and other periodicals.
"Le Crime et le Silence: Jedwabne 1941, la mémoire d'un pogrom dans la Pologne d'aujourd'hui" by Anna Bikont
Translation by: Anna Hurwic
Published by: Denoël Publishers, January 2011
ISBN 978-2207260623
Originally published as "My z Jedwabne", 2004 by Prószyński i S-ka Publishers
More on the book at the official PLE website: www.livre-europeen.eu
See excerpts from the book at: www.radzilow.com
Source: Polish Book Institute