Cover of Viale dell'Indipendenza
Viali dell'Indipendenza is the Italian title of Krzysztof Varga’s newest book, recently translated by Leonardo Masi. The Polish author meets with Italian readers during two evenings in Bologna and Florence, speaking about the novel which paints a bitter portrait of Poland’s contemporary answer to Wilde's Dorian Grey
With Independence Avenue, Varga returns to his favourite motif of a nostalgic tale about youth, set in the era of Poland’s crumbling communist regime. The main character of his novel is Krystian Apostata, an unfulfilled artist, a frustrated failure of a man who spends his evenings in solitude, drinking wine in front of a computer screen. The "magic" age of forty that is fast approaching for him is neither a marker of second-chance youth nor a last-minute jolt of virile madness. It constitutes a bitter lamentation over his wasted talent and the life that passed him by.
Krzysztof Varga is known for his witty, sharp and unpleasant diagnosis he makes of the Polish reality. The scornful and cynical tone stirrs a nervous laughter, as the seemingly parodic surface veils something of an all-too-familiar reality. This time the mirror which Varga shows to the reader is the portrait of Dorian Grey that he would never want to see.
The Italian publisher of the book states
With Independence Avenue, Krzysztof Varga paints the portrait of a Polish Dorian Gray of the last twenty years, with his vices and his broken dreams. Through the story of Kristian and Jakub, the Pole Varga speaks - with the disenchantment of Houellebecq and the black humor of Howard Jacobson - of a generation caught between two radically different models of life, going through many changes while attempting to escape from their traps.
The meeting with Krzysztof Varga in Bologna is hosted by Andrea Ceccherelli, a professor of Polish literature at the University of Bologna, who has translated numerous Polish titles, as well as the poetry of Miłosz, Szymborska, Herbert and other Poles.
In Florence, Viali dell'Indipendenza is presented by the translator Leonardo Masi and Marcin Wyrembelski, who lectures in Polish language at the University of Florence.
Leonardo Masi has also translated Antimondo by Tomasz Różycki, Świat i Antyświat in the original (The World and the Anti-world, translated by Masi ogether with Alessandro Ajrese, and published in Italy in 2009), and Fuochi Altra di Bengala e poesia by Krzysztof Karasek, released in 2011.
Meeting details:
12th of April, 2012, 5 pm - Libreria Feltrinelli International, Via Zamboni, 7/b - Bologna
13th of April, 2012, 6 pm - Libreria Edison, Piazza della Repubblica 27/r - Florence
Krzysztof Varga (born 1968) is a writer and journalist. He is the cultural news editor of the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. Varga used to cooperate with Paweł Dunin-Wąsowicz, and together they created their own glossary of the latest Polish literature, Parnas bis. Literatura polska urodzona po 1960 r. (Parnas encore. Polish literature born after 1960). The initial edition was published in 1995, and subsequent volumes bore a humorous title-note: "the first Polish post-modernist novel". The duo teamed up with Jarosław Klejnocki and released an anthology, entitled Macie swoich poetów (You've Got Your Poets). In 1998, Varga was presented with the Cultural Foundation Award for his 45 pomysłów na powieść (45 Ideas for a Novel). In 2002, the writer was also nominated for the Nike Literary Award for his Tequila, in 2008 for Nagrobek z lastryko (Terrazzo Tombstone), and in 2009 for Gulasz z turuli (Turula Goulash). He is also the finalist of the 2009 Central European Angelus Literary Award. He published Aleja Niepodległości (Independence Avenue) in 2009.
Krzysztof Varga - Viali dell'Indipendenza
Published by: Nikita Editore - Gruppo Editoriale Barbes, Florence 2012
(official release on the 23rd of February 2012)
138 x 188, 297 pgs, paperback
ISBN 978-88-95812-07-6
Source: www.istitutopolacco.it, www.nikitaeditore.it, culture.pl