Literary novel
Daniel Odija
Empty Flight

An excellent analysis of mental illness along with its obsessions

“Fall!” I heard.

Somebody pushed me in the back, and I started falling from a great height. Then, as I was about to crash down, I woke from a short nap. My body twitched in an unconscious reaction to stop a fall which was as real as if it were about to take place in reality, yet existed only in my dream. When I was dreaming though, I didn’t know that. I was entirely convinced that I was about to die.

At that same moment, I heard a loud thump on the window, just above my head. Maybe that’s what woke me up. There were two seagulls fighting over something so fiercely in mid-air that they didn’t see the window. […]

They’d left a mark on the window, an impression of widespread wings. The impact must have been very hard for them to have crushed in this way. Luckily, the window didn’t crack.

“Angels!” I recalled mother’s words. “Come on, boys, look at the angels!”

Years ago, when we were still children, mother showed me and my brother marks like those on the window. When was it I last visited her? About six months ago, perhaps a bit longer. Mother, sometimes mum, never mummy. I only called her “mum” when I wanted to make her happy, but to me, or when I talked to others about her, I called her “mother”. Mother not mum. We kissed each other on the cheek to say hello and sometimes hugged when saying goodbye. Ever since I remember, we’ve kept our distance.

She liked watching television series and nature films, playing patience and placing tarot cards, drinking black coffee, smoking one cigarette after another, and sometimes swigging a drop of herbal or fruit spirit. She’s worked at the Marriage Registry all her life, was quickly promoted to manager, and has officiated over several thousand wedding ceremonies. She didn’t want to retire because she’d miss the weddings which she kept on talking about with her colleagues:

“Beautiful! So handsome! Youth is always beautiful. It speaks for itself.”

“But did you see that other one? Old cow, pretending to be a spring chicken. What husband is that, her fifth?”

“Every blight’s someone’s delight.”

“They look as if they’re in love. Do you think they’ll spend their whole lives together?”

“He suits her like a hunchback suits a straight wall.”

“Look at that, practically still a child with such an old boar. I bet it’s the money.”

Commenting on the appearance and choice of newly- weds never bored her. She also went to the country to see her sister, whom my brother and I had known since we were children because mother took us there. She never found herself another guy after my father, although many milled around her because she was shapely and attractive.

I think she’d have preferred her older son’s fate to have been mine. I was always second-best because not only had I been born second, but I also proved a disappointment.

Excerpt translated by Danusia Stok

Literary novel
Daniel Odija
Empty Flight

An excellent analysis of mental illness along with its obsessions

Publisher: Wydawnictwo Czarne, Wołowiec 2021
Translation rights: Andrew Nurnberg Associates Warsaw, anna.rucinska@nurnberg.pl
Foreign language translations: Daniel Odija’s works have been published in France, Germany, Macedonia, Ukraine.

Daniel Odija’s novel, Empty Flight, offers a rare insight not only into the world of the mentally sick but also, and perhaps above all, the world of those who live alongside them. In it, we observe the destructive progression of mental illness through the eyes of the sufferer’s brother, the narrator. This gives a clearer picture of how the deteriorating state of the mentally afflicted bears upon the lives of those close to him, especially his family. The destructive force of schizophrenia affects not only its victim, for whom the torment becomes unbearable and, in the end, leads to suicide, but also the brother, who falls into the grips of alcohol, the mother, who cannot cope with the suffering, and the ex-fiancée. It destroys many relationships or turns them toxic.

Both the narrator and the other main characters remain nameless, making it easier for us to identify with them. This could happen to any of us, the author seems to say. Throughout the novel, we accompany the narrator in his attempts to understand what had happened. The author’s highly skilful use of flashbacks allows the truth to be gradually revealed. This effect is further heightened by the same events being seen from different points of view, which come to light when the narrator meets his mother and his brother’s exfiancée after his death. Aside from that, Daniel Odija’s book constitutes an excellent analysis of mental illness along with its obsessions (in this case, they take on “birdlike” connotations, reflected also through symbolism), phases and relapses tensely awaited. This tension is contagious because Empty Flight is an expertly-written novel. Interesting as regards language and style, but also very informative.

Szymon Babuchowski

Translated by Danusia Stok

Selected samples

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Julita Deluga
Wojtek Wawszczyk, Tomasz Leśniak
121344
Anna Kańtoch
Andrzej Bobkowski
Wisława Szymborska
Zdzisław Kranodębski
Andrzej Nowak
Wiesław Myśliwski
Jarosław Jakubowski
Anna Piwkowska
Roman Honet
Miłosz Biedrzycki
Wojciech Chmielewski
Aleksandra Majdzińska
Tomasz Różycki
Maciej Hen
Jakub Nowak
Elżbieta Cherezińska
歐菈·沃丹斯卡-波欽斯卡(Ola Woldańska-Płocińska)
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文字:莫妮卡·烏特尼-斯特魯加瓦(Monika Utnik-Strugała), 概念和插圖:皮歐特·索哈(Piotr Socha)
作者:亞格涅絲卡·斯特爾馬什克(Agnieszka Stelmaszyk)
尤安娜·日斯卡(Joanna Rzyska)、阿嘉妲·杜德克(Agata Dudek)、瑪格熱妲·諾瓦克(Małgorzata Nowak) Druganoga出版社,華沙2021
艾麗莎·皮歐特夫斯卡(Eliza Piotrowska)
米科瓦伊·帕辛斯基(Mikołaj Pasiński)、瑪格熱妲·赫爾巴(Gosia Herba)
歐菈·沃丹斯卡-波欽斯卡(Ola Woldańska-Płocińska)
瑪麗安娜·奧克雷亞克(Marianna Oklejak)
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亞歷珊德拉·沃丹斯卡-波欽斯卡(Aleksandra Woldańska-Płocińska)
巴托米耶·伊格納邱克(Bartłomiej Ignaciuk), 阿嘉塔·洛特-伊格納邱克(Agata Loth-Ignaciuk)
文字和插圖:皮歐特·卡爾斯基(Piotr Karski)
文字和插圖:皮歐特·卡爾斯基(Piotr Karski)
羅珊娜·延澤耶夫斯卡-弗魯貝爾 (Roksana Jędrzejewska-Wróbel)
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尤斯提娜·貝納雷(Justyna Bednarek) 插圖:丹尼爾·德拉圖爾(Daniel De Latour)
尤安娜·巴托西克(Joanna Bartosik)
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Jan Kochanowski
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Olga Tokarczuk
Władysław Stanisław Reymont
An Ancient Tale
Stanisław Rembek
Elżbieta Cherezińska
Henryk Sienkiewicz
Maria Dąbrowska
Stefan Żeromski
Bronisław Wildstein
Zbigniew Herbert / Wisława Szymborska
Karol Wojtyła
Wiesław Myśliwski
Czesław Miłosz
Anna Świrszczyńska / Melchior Wańkowicz
Tadeusz Borowski / Gustaw Herling-Grudziński
Wiesław Helak
Góra Tabor
Adriana Szymańska
Paweł Rzewuski
Mariusz Staniszewski
Staniszewski_Kartel
Radek Rak
Agla
Urszula Honek
Honek
Kazimierz Orłoś
Orlos
Rafał Wojasiński
Tefil
Antonina Grzegorzewska
Grzegorzewska_drama
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Mackiewicz_Sprawa
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Piatkowski_Oleksicki_Ekspozytura
Daniel Odija
Bronisław Wildstein
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Mackiewicz_Droga
Józef Mackiewicz
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Andrzej Muszyński
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Wiesław Myśliwski
Jakub Małecki
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69

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