Milan Kundera called Witold Gombrowicz "one of the great novelists of
our century." His most famous novel, Cosmos, the recipient of the 1967
International Prize for Literature, is now available in a critically
acclaimed translation, for the first time directly from the Polish, by
the award-winning translator Danuta Borchardt.
Cosmos is a metaphysical noir thriller narrated by Witold, a seedy,
pathetic, and witty student, who is charming and appalling by turns. On
his way to a relaxing vacation he meets the despondent Fuks. As they set
off together for a family-run pension in the Carpathian Mountains they
discover a dead bird hanging from a string. Is this a strange but
meaningless occurrence or is it the beginning of a string of bizarre
events? As the young men become embroiled in the Chekhovian travails of
the family running the pension, Grombrowicz creates a gripping narrative
where the reader questions who is sane and who is safe?