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A daring debut novel. The nineteenth-century protagonists of Jakub Nowak’s Down to the Wind desired to realise their American Dream, but don’t yet know that in a few weeks they’ll have to wake up from it. He – Henryk Sienkiewicz – a young journalist and ambitious writer on the brink of fame. She – Helena Modrzejewska – aware of her position, has already achieved everything in the theatres of Warsaw and is now dreaming about a new world, other stages, a new role. They are brought together by a trip to California where they plan to grow wine grapes with a group of friends. This encounter and expedition did indeed take place in 1874; Nowak drew from memoirs, newspapers and documents from the era. The rest is fiction.

The author reconstructs the era and adds to it further dramatic personas, layers, contexts and psychological motivations. Did these two future global stars share a secret American romance? Subtle tensions, ambiguities and unclear situations, erotic innuendos are here the daily – and nightly – fare. Down to the Wind appears in this light as a clear example of the “new historical novel”, to which we might add the Lithuanian series Silva Rerum by Kristina Sabaliauskaitė, the bestselling novels of Szczepan Twardoch and Elena Ferrante, and Radek Rak’s Nike Award winner Baśń o wężowym sercu [Tale of a Snakelike Heart]. These books are connected by a distinct postmodernist flair, erudite references, and juicy and sensual language. In an alternative reality, a novel like Down to the Wind might have been written by the young Witold Gombrowicz, fantasising about his celebrated literary nemesis.

Meanwhile, Nowak spins his tale in the gusts of the hot Californian wind, times overlap and become lazily entangled, sand crunches in your teeth, a new hat still smelling of the inside of a pharmacy slides back on your head, and the protagonists are gripped by greater and greater desire. It’s obvious what caused all this, even if no one has the courage to express it yet.