Swallowing Mercury

Wiolka grows up in Hektary, a village near Częstochowa, around 1980, and her world widens in rings as she gets older. First come creatures: a balding llama from a church fair, a black tomcat who sleeps in her bed against her mother's orders and leads her along the fences, and the forest game her father prepares. Then the village's faith, where Corpus Christi processions and the run-up to the Pope's visit sit easily beside a red ribbon against the evil eye and the fear that a squashed spider will call up thunder. Then its people: neighbours plucking feathers together, an old man who swaps volumes of Lenin for loo rolls, her mother's friend forced out of Poland in 1968. Along the way come school, a seamstress she spies on, and her first encounters with desire.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Short stories

Length

115 pages in the original

Genres

Coming of age, Autofiction (assigned by AI)

Set in

Poland, communist era

First published

2014 by Wydawnictwo Czarne

Author's age

40 when first published

ISBN

9788375366969 (original)

9781846276071 (Portobello Books, United Kingdom)

9781945492044 (Transit Books, United States)