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Finite Formulae and Theories of Chance

Wioletta Greg author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Arc Publications

Published:21st Oct '14

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Finite Formulae and Theories of Chance cover

One hundred years since the outbreak of the First World War, Wioletta Greg traces the seams of a family history through a hundred years of life, death, love and tragedy with passion and humour. From the lives of her grandparents in early twentieth-century Poland, through two world wars, life under Communism and the subsequent liberation, to her own experiences as a migrant living on a small island off the coast of Britain, this collection serves as both a fitting personal testament to a family that survived, and as a compelling document of a century of European history. Wioletta Greg has published several volumes of poetry, a collection of short prose poems and, most recently, a debut novel, Guguly (Wydawnictwo Czarne, 2014), which has already been hailed as the 'discovery of the year' by critics and readers alike. Marek Kazmierski's attentive and nuanced translation of this, her first book-length publication in the UK, gives readers of English a chance to experience this powerful work for the first time.

"These poems are riddled with overlapping tenses, places and intentions. New life is organised into being, memories are set in order, life on something as uncertain as an 'island' is attempted, as is the writing, 'mid-flight', rather than at rest." Karol Maliszewski "The poetess moved to the UK in 2006 and settled on the Isle of Wight: 'Take me away from this paradise, where I feel as tepid / as tea with milk. Take me, before I evaporate.' She seduces the reader with her childhood memories and the glimpses of post-Communist Poland. But it's the everyday woman's experience portrayed with great maturity and tenderness that makes this book so exceptional." A. M. Bakalar, Wasafiri

ISBN: 9781908376923

Dimensions: 222mm x 138mm x 12mm

Weight: unknown

128 pages