The young Polish writer has composed a novel about life in the shadow of Francisco Goya’s genius and the destructive pressure of a despotic father on his son.
Saturn is a fictionalised version of the personal life of the great Spanish painter Goya. The story is narrated by Goya, his son Javier and his grandson Mariano. The deeply flawed relationship between the three generations produces an atmosphere of psychological tension. The novel is built around the hypothesis that Goya's horrific series of "Black Paintings" were in fact the work of his son Javier, and were Javier's way of expressing his feelings about his father. Each painting is illustrated within the book.
Maria Poprzęcka, a leading Polish art historian, commented on the intertwining monologues of the three main characters: "the great Francisco, his failure of a son, Javier, and the grandson of Goya, Mariano" and noted that the book is "a linguistic masterpiece." Saturn was nominated for the 2012 Nike Literary Award, Poland’s most prestigious prize in literature.
Aside from the English translation's publication by Dedalus in January 2013, the novel’s publication in German is also planned later in the year.
Jacek Dehnel (born 1980) is a poet and writer, and a translator from English into Polish (Philip Larkin, George Szirtes, W.H. Auden) and from Russian (Osip Mandelstam). He studied Polish Literature at Warsaw University then wrote his PhD thesis on the Polish translations of Philip Larkin, whose poetry he has translated. He has published four volumes of poetry, which have been widely translated, including into English.
The writer is a laureate of numerous prizes. He is one of the youngest winners of Poland's Koscielski Prize for promising new writers, which he was awarded in 2005, and in 2006 he was presented with the Polityka Passport Award. Along with literature, Dehnel pursues painting and "the art of living", which for him involves copying the dress and behaviour of a dandy. This styling from bygone times has been central to Dehnel's core project, and over time other elements have appeared. A laconic summary of Dehnel's writing has been offered by Maciej Robert, who said: "Dehnel has never fit the image of Polish contemporary literature".
Antonia Lloyd-Jones (born 1962) is one of the finest translators of Polish literature into English. She read Russian and Ancient Greek at Oxford. Her published translations from Polish include novels by Paweł Huelle (Castorp, Mercedes-Benz) and Olga Tokarczuk (Day House and Night House), short stories by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, and non-fiction, most recently by Ryszard Kapuściński and Wojciech Tochman. One of her latest translations to appear in print is the biography Ryszard Kapuściński: A Life by Artur Domosławski. Janusz Korczak's Kaytek the Wizard appeared in English in August 2012. She was awarded the Found in Translation Award in 2009 for her translation of Paweł Huelle's Last Supper.
Saturn
By Jacek Dehnel
Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Published by Dedalus Books (UK)
Publishing date: January 2013
See more at www.dedalusbooks.com
Editor: Paulina Schlosser
Source: press release, Polish Institute in London