Crime fiction
Anna Kańtoch
Spring of the Missing & Summer of the Lost

A precisely constructed plot linked not so much by crime as by
psychological sensitivity

The next day I made an appointment at the hairdresser’s and told pani Zosia to return my hair to its natural grey colour. I went into the store with brown hair and came out with it white as milk. Examining myself later in the mirror I thought I really looked like an old lady. Not a senior citizen or a mature woman or someone of advanced years, just an ordinary old lady whose face was carved with deep furrows. Those furrows had appeared early, even before I turned 50, and used to cause me a great deal of anguish. But now my face had become my ally. I didn’t feel like an old lady, but I looked like one and was glad I did, since old ladies aren’t so dangerous, no one suspects old ladies, and I already knew I intended to commit a crime.

I saw Jacek for the first time when winter was still in full swing. It was Wednesday, 21 March, the first day of spring, though it was even snowing and raining at the same time. Nevertheless, fed up with sitting at home for ages, I decided to get out my Nordic walking sticks from the cupboard and go out for some exercise. Mud caked on my boots and cold wind blasted in my face as I walked toward Bolina. Theoretically it’s a park – at least that’s what it says on the sign – but in practice it’s more of a… recreation area? I don’t know if that’s a good way of putting it. There are two sports grounds: one soccer field and one basketball court, a playground for children, a pair of crisscrossing walkways, a restaurant with a garden and a covered area for barbecuing. Of course all this was empty that time of year, the only people I came across were an older lady with her dog and a young woman jogging stubbornly along in thin running gear.

I was making my way back freezing and tired, but in a better mood. The wind had driven away the Silesian smog and for the first time in many days you could breathe freely outside. On the way I stepped into Rabat to buy a coffee, milk and of course the inevitable meatballs in tomato sauce for lunch. That was when I saw him.

He was standing by the cool shelf, holding a pack of cheese-and-potato pierogies. I remember he glanced at me and I wanted to give him a sympathetic look, because I thought I’d found a soulmate, yet another older person living on pre-made food. Then I recognized him. It had been 50 years since we’d laid eyes on one another, yet I had no doubts. We all change with time, but amid those changes some of us maintain a certain… constancy. Like Jacek. He was now grey, hunched and wrinkly, but it was still him. His gaze passed over me indifferently on its way to the counter with the fish display. He didn’t recognise me, of course not. I knew it had been a long time since I’d looked anything like the plump, dimpled girl he might remember. When I turned 40, the people I knew from college stopped recognizing me, and I’d changed even more since then. So I stood there and watched him putting a greasy mackerel into his basket. I situated myself just behind him in the checkout line, completely forgetting about the coffee and milk, and then I followed him all the way home. He lived at the end of Zamkowa Street in a one-story villa surrounded by a tall iron fence. What was on my mind as I looked at that house? As I stood at the edge of the forest, feeling the drops of drizzle landing on my face, I think nothing had occurred to me yet, I was just amazed that fate had finally thrown us so close together. Only later, on my way home, as I passed the angular 1970s apartment buildings and much older brick familoki with chimneys giving off grey smoke, did I realise the obvious truth: Jacek must have been among the wealthiest inhabitants of our eclectic neighbourhood. I had a two-room apartment while he had ended up with a villa. No, this was nothing so primitive as envy, rather a certain… craving for justice.

Excerpt translated by Sean G. Bye

Crime fiction
Anna Kańtoch
Spring of the Missing & Summer of the Lost

A precisely constructed plot linked not so much by crime as by
psychological sensitivity

Publisher: Marginesy, Warszawa 2020 & 2021
Translation rights: Marginesy, k.rudzka@marginesy.com.pl
Foreign language translations: Rights for Kańtoch’s fantasy books have been sold to Italy, Ukraine and Russia.

Anna Kańtoch began her career – successfully – with fantasy (she has received numerous awards for her sci-fi and fantasy novels and short stories). Since 2013 she has also been writing crime novels, advancing to be one of the leading Polish authors in that genre. Her new trilogy (of which two have been published so far – Spring of the Missing and Summer of the Lost) not only consolidates Kańtoch’s position on the Polish scene, but also shows this Silesian author is an independent trailblazer.

We meet the main character of this series in Spring of the Missing as a retired police officer: Krystyna Lesińska is already over 70. But Spring… is no “cozy mystery” and Lesińska herself – caustic, withdrawn, painfully exacting – doesn’t have an ounce of Miss Marple in her. A curse hangs over her life: her brother went missing a half century ago in the Tatra Mountains, and someone killed three of his friends on that same trip. This trauma drove Lesińska into police work, but now, years later and quite suddenly, she has the chance to solve the riddle and even to get revenge… The next book, Summer of the Lost, takes us back in time to the late 1990s. Lesińska is still an active police officer and a complicated investigation is underway in the case of the murder of a married couple and their two children in a remote forester’s lodge. Investigating this crime becomes a peculiar kind of study of human (un)consciousness: who could be the “I” that ended these people’s lives?

Kańtoch constructs the plot with precision, but these novels are linked not so much by crime as by psychological, emotional sensitivity: they’re stories about the paradoxes of memory and personality, of loneliness, isolation, fear and families falling apart. Yet Kańtoch approaches these themes differently than the currently fashionable domestic thrillers – she doesn’t build an atmosphere of danger, but rather opts for the main character’s calm fatalism, seasoned with the fairly cynical misanthropy of a mature woman with no illusions. It’s no surprise that Spring of the Missing received the prestigious High Calibre Prize for the best Polish crime novel of 2020.

Piotr Kofta

Translated by Sean G. Bye

Selected samples

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Mateusz Żaboklicki
Anna Świrszczyńska
Mirka Szychowiak
Filip Matwiejczuk
Justyna Kulikowska
Urszula Kozioł
Kamila Janiak
Urszula Honek
Zuzanna Ginczanka
Darek Foks
Kacper Bartczak
Justyna Bargielska
Joanna Kuciel-Frydryszak
Maciej Robert
Michał Książek
Natalka Suszczyńska
Małgorzata Rejmer
Grzegorz Bogdał
Andrzej Chwalba
Renata Lis
Andrzej Stasiuk
Julia Łapińska
Aleksandra Tarnowska
Kajetan Szokalski
Aleksandra Koperda
Marta Hermanowicz
Ishbel Szatrawska
Monika Muskała
Elżbieta Łapczyńska
Łukasz Krukowski
Adam Kaczanowski
Agnieszka Jelonek
Mateusz Górniak
Anna Cieplak
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)
作者:沃伊切赫·維德瓦克(Wojciech Widłak), 插圖:亞歷珊德拉·克珊諾夫斯卡(Aleksandra Krzanowska)
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)
拉法爾·科希克(Rafał Kosik)
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)
作者:普舎米斯瓦夫·維赫特洛維奇(Przemysław Wechterowicz) 插圖:艾米莉·吉烏巴克(Emilia Dziubak)
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)
瑪格熱妲·斯文多夫斯卡(Małgorzata Swędrowska)、尤安娜·巴托西克(Joanna Bartosik)
Jan Kochanowski
Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz
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
Józef Mackiewicz
Mackiewicz_Sprawa
Tobiasz Piątkowski, Marek Oleksicki
Piatkowski_Oleksicki_Ekspozytura
Daniel Odija
Bronisław Wildstein
Józef Mackiewicz
Mackiewicz_Droga
Józef Mackiewicz
Mackiewicz_Bunt-rojstow
Witold Szabłowski
Szablowski_Rosja-od-kuchni
Andrzej Muszyński
Muszynski_Dom-ojcow
Wiesław Helak
Helak
Bartosz Jastrzębski
Jastrzebski_Dies-irae
Dariusz Sośnicki
Sośnicki_Po-domu
Łukasz Orbitowski
Orbitowski_chodz
Jakub Małecki
Malecki_SO
אנדז'יי ספקובסקי
Elżbieta Cherezińska
Wiesław Myśliwski
Jakub Małecki
Aleksandra Lipczak
Jacek Dukaj
Wit Szostak
Bartosz Biedrzycki
Zyta Rudzka
Maciej Płaza
Wojciech Chmielewski
Paweł Huelle
Przemysław "Trust" Truściński
Angelika Kuźniak
Wojciech Kudyba
Michał Protasiuk
Stanisław Rembek
Rembek
Krzysztof Karasek
Elżbieta Isakiewicz
Artur Daniel Liskowacki
Jarosław Jakubowski
Zbigniew Stawrowski
Szczepan Twardoch
Wojciech Chmielarz
Robert Małecki
Zygmunt Miłoszewski
Anna Piwkowska
Dominika Słowik
Wojciech Chmielewski
Barbara Banaś
Rafał Mikołajczyk
Jerzy Szymik
Waldemar Bawołek
Julia Fiedorczuk
Jakub Szamałek
Witold Szabłowski
Jacek Dukaj
Grzegorz Górny, Janusz Rosikoń
Paweł Piechnik
Andrzej Strumiłło

69

Marta Kwaśnicka
Piotr Mitzner
Paweł Sołtys
Wacław Holewiński
Anna Potyra
Wiesław Helak
Urszula Zajączkowska
Marek Stokowski
Stokowski
Hubert Klimko-Dobrzaniecki
HKD
Jakub Małecki
Malecki_Horyzont
Łukasz Orbitowski
Orbitowski
Małgorzata Rejmer
Rejmer
Rafał Wojasiński
Olanda
Wojciech Kudyba
Kudyba
Włodzimierz Bolecki
Bolecki
Jerzy Liebert
Liebert
Wojciech Zembaty
Zembaty
Wojciech Chmielarz
Chmielarz
Bogdan Musiał
Musiał
Joanna Siedlecka
Siedlecka
Krzysztof Tyszka-Drozdowski
Drozdowski
Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz
Marek Bieńczyk
Bienczyk
Leszek Elektorowicz
Elektorowicz
Adrian Sinkowski
Sinkowski
Szymon Babuchowski
Babuchowski
Lech Majewski
Majewski
Weronika Murek
Murek
Agnieszka Świętek
Swietek
Stanisław Szukalski
Barbara Klicka
Klicka
Anna Kamińska

She climbed her first peaks in a headscarf at a time when women in the mountains were treated by climbers as an additional backpack. It was with her that female alpinism began! She gained recognition in a spectacular way. The path was considered a crossing for madmen. Especially since the tragic accident in 1929, preserved … Continue reading “Halina”

Wojciech Chmielarz

First, Marysia, a student of an exclusive private school in Warsaw’s Mokotów district, dies under the wheels of a train. Her teacher, Elżbieta, tries to find out what really happened. She starts a private investigation only soon to perish herself. But her body disappears, and the only people who have seen anything are Gniewomir, a … Continue reading “Wound”

Anna Kańtoch

A young girl, Regina Wieczorek, was found dead on the beach. She was nineteen years old and had no enemies. Fortunately, the culprit was quickly found. At least, that’s what the militia think. Meanwhile, one day in November, Jan Kowalski appears at the police station. He claims to have killed not only Regina but also … Continue reading “Penance”

Marek Krajewski

The year is 1922. A dangerous time of breakthrough. In the Eastern Borderlands of the Republic of Poland, Bolshevik gangs sow terror, leaving behind the corpses of men and disgraced women. A ruthless secret intelligence race takes place between the Lviv-Warsaw-Free City of Gdańsk line. Lviv investigator Edward Popielski, called Łysy (“Hairless”), receives an offer … Continue reading “A Girl with Four Fingers”

Ks. Tomasz Stępień

This question is closely related to the next one, namely: if any goal exists, does life lead us to that goal in an orderly manner? In other words, is everything that happens to us just a set of chaotic events that, combined together, do not form a whole? To understand how the concept of providence … Continue reading “Order and Love”

Jakub Małecki
Szczepan Twardoch
Wiesław Helak
Maria Wilczek-Krupa
Anna Kańtoch
Rafał Kosik
Paweł Sołtys
Dorota Masłowska
Wiesław Myśliwski
Martyna Bunda
Olga Tokarczuk
Various authors
Mariola Kruszewska
Waldemar Bawołek
Marek Oleksicki, Tobiasz Piątkowski
Wojciech Tomczyk
Urszula Zajączkowska
Marzanna Bogumiła Kielar
Ks. Robert Skrzypczak
Bronisław Wildstein
Anna Bikont
Magdalena Grzebałkowska
Wojciech Orliński
Klementyna Suchanow
Andrzej Franaszek
Natalia Budzyńska
Marian Sworzeń
Aleksandra Wójcik, Maciej Zdziarski
Józef Łobodowski

The work of Józef Łobodowski (1909-1988) – a remarkable poet, prose writer, and translator, who spent most of his life in exile – is slowly being revived in Poland. Łobodowski’s brilliant three- volume novel, composed on an epic scale, concerns the fate of families and orphans unmoored by the Bolshevik Revolution and civil war and … Continue reading “Ukrainian Trilogy: Thickets, The Settlement, The Way Back”

Piotr Zaremba
Wacław Holewiński
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