A grotesque crimino-social dystopia
Nature will still surely astonish humankind many times. For example, with the new disease
“mistletosis” – a mutated version of common mistletoe, which as a result of biological experiments into parasitising trees will transfer to people.
Kajetan Szokalski paints just such a dystopian vision of the near future in his novel whose title comes from the name of the proliferating parasite. The protagonist, Julian Wajgel, a painter of car chassis in the Polish Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Plant, finds himself in a desperate situation: not only are stems of the sinister plant growing on his mother, but the factory where he’s employed is about to downsize. The prime minister comes to the aid of the employees by inviting them to take part in a social experiment in order to compensate them for losing their jobs. They will be generously paid for spending a year in the specially-built luxury village. There’s one condition, however: under no circumstances may they leave the village. The government experiment is concealing a secret, however, and Julian Wajgel is not the conformist he appears to be…
Szokalski’s novel is a literary collage, combining not just classical prose genres such as fantasy, crime and horror, but also styles typical for Polish culture, like the manufacturing novel popular during communism about workers from factories and state-owned plants. The narrative form drawing on the grotesque will help the novel find a wide range of readers: from older teens, through young adults, to thirty- and forty-somethings who appreciate accomplished literary writing.
Katarzyna Wójcik, translated by David French
