Zbigniew Kruszyński

(b. 1957) – a prose writer and translator.

An activist in Wrocław’s Solidarity, imprisoned in 1982–84, upon his release he immigrated to Sweden, finding work at the University of Stockholm. He translates from the Swedish.

Zbigniew Kruszyński’s first novel, Schwedenkräuter is an original take on uprootedness and alienation as experiences of immigrants. Published not long after, ‘Szkice historyczne’ (Historical Sketches) is an ambitious attempt to reconstruct the protagonists’ individual fates and survive the fate of the generation. Both novels are highly autobiographical; the events of the latter chronologically precede the plot of the debut novel.

Grappling with identity, existential and, to a lesser degree, political issues, Kruszyński approaches them from a linguistic angle. This method is corrected in the next book – the short-story collection ‘Na lądach i morzach’ (On Lands and Seas) – which reads as a bitter diagnosis of the social reality, a piece on the human, psychological costs of the great change that occurred in Poland in the 1990s.

‘Powrót Aleksandra’ (Alexander’s Return) was Zbigniew Kruszyński’s return after seven years away from the literary scene. His novel ‘Ostatni raport’ (The Final Report) was a big surprise. It is made up of a gripping monologue of a Secret Service agent, full of anecdotes and digressions, ultimately turning himself in. This book speaks not only of political and moral dilemmas, it also reflects upon human choices and their consequences. Kruszyński also brilliantly renders the atmosphere of communist Poland, full of absurdities, contrasts and social tensions. Just as unusual as a study of human relations and decisions is the micro-novel ‘Kurator’ (The Curator), showing the difficulties in building real bonds, particularly with a generation gap and the role of material dependencies between generations.

Although Kruszyński’s work is deeply rooted in Polish reality, the themes he raises, such as loneliness, moral dilemmas and the search for one’s identity, have a universal appeal.

Zbigniew Kruszyński was nominated three times for the Nike Award, for Historical Sketches (1997), On Lands and Seas (2000) and the short-story collection Alexander’s Return (2007) – for the last book he received the Andrzej Kijowski Award (2007). In 2015, he received the Adam Mickiewicz Poznań Literary Award.