Magdalena Grzebałkowska graduated in history from the University of Gdańsk. Since 1998 she has worked as a reporter for "Gazeta Wyborcza". She lives in Sopot.
She has won the Grand Press Award, the Silesian Wawrzyn Literary Award and the Tadeusz Mazowiecki Polish-German Journalist Award.
Loneliness of the poet
Her famous book debut, Ksiądz Paradoks. Biografia Jana Twardowskiego (Father Paradox. Biography of Jan Twardowski, trans. by A.P.) was published in 2011. The author reached for unknown notes of a clergyman, thanks to which she broke his stereotype of "ladybug poet". "One can say opposing things about him and all will turn out to be true" – she proves with her book.
Ksiądz Paradoks is an extraordinary story of a man who escapes all labels. The author analyses his irresistible need for friendship with women. The priest's naive or only good-natured naivety was the reason for his long-standing contacts with a secret police officer under the communist regime. She reflects on the feeling of loneliness of Fr Jan Twardowski, the author of the famous poem, which begins with the phrase: "Let us hurry to love people, so quickly they leave." Jacek Hugo-Bader wrote:
The biography of a man who has vowed poverty, chastity and obedience. Boring? If I didn't know the author, I would never read this book in my life. And that would be the greatest loss. I went crazy with the first chapter. And when I got to the part about toupee adhesive... It's thrilling! What a life! What a style!
Ksiądz Paradoks brings us closer to our youth, the beginnings of our extraordinary popularity and the last, most mysterious years of the poet's life in the cassock. As reviewed by Mariusz Szczygieł:
Magda Grzebałkowska wrote a fantastic book [...]. She wrote it wisely and with humour. I have an impression that Father Twardowski, with his witty and bright approach to the world, got a witty and bright biographer.
As simply as possible
Another important book by Magdalena Grzebałkowska is Beksińscy. Portret Podwójny (Beksińscy: Double Portrait, trans. by A.P.), for which she was awarded a Śląski Wawrzyn Literacki in a poll of readers of the Silesian Library in Katowice. The publication acknowledged as the Book of the Year 2014 and received almost half of all votes cast in the poll: 49.56 percent.
Beksińscy. Portret Podwójny is a story about a father and son. About the search for love and the inability to express it, which is reflected in the tagline on the front cover:
Zdzisław Beksiński never hits his son. Zdzisław Beksiński never hugs his son.
Zdzisław Beksiński went down in the history of Polish art as one of the most interesting but also controversial painters. His son Tomasz was a fervent music journalist. Both of them were outstanding in their fields.