Wniebogłos

This is a novel in which there are no false tones. While music plays an important role in the story, it is also about the smooth implementation of the conventions of a coming-of-age story. The rhythm of the text harmonises with the main character’s repeated attempts to become part of a group of people who sing at funerals. His efforts are stretched between desire and a sense of functioning in the space of the influence of something that is not fully understood. The boy is talented – no doubt about it. His loved ones know this, as do those who have heard him sing. At the same time, a disturbing belief is brewing that the singing is not always innocent; that it might have completely unpredictable consequences. The village becomes a reality in which music brings empowerment. Apparently, it also has a causative power. Singing becomes the basis for building a community, the songs collected in a notebook turn out to be a unique archive of the past, and the instrument ceases to be an ordinary object; not only does it enable beauty to be heard, but also created. The performance of funeral songs turns into a declaration of remaining among the living. The result is a coming-of-age novel in which the experience of existence is associated with an acute awareness of dying. Without this far-from-obvious relationship, it is impossible to experience meaning and finality.