Awards: 
This story about the friendship of a boy and his longed-for dog takes us to one of the most beautiful parts of the Carpathians – the Low Beskids.
It’s spring 1947. Nature is coming alive, baby lynxes and wolves are being born, colourful butterflies are hatching from chrysalises. However, as we read, we realise that history hasn’t left this idyllic region untouched. Kola, his family and his neighbours are Lemkos – a nation that has lived in the borderlands of today’s Poland and Slovakia for centuries. They have a different culture: they speak their own language, write in Cyrillic and go to an Orthodox church. For centuries that didn’t bother anybody. But it suddenly turns out they must leave their homes because of this.
The book – beautifully written and illustrated by the author – is an act of homage to Carpathian nature and the people who live there. Hajda is the third volume of Maria Strzelecka’s “The Beskids for Real” series.
Iwona Haberny, translated by David French
