'I had only one eye, I was hungry and cold, yet I wanted to live... so
that I could tell it all just as I've told you.' - From Zofia
Nalkowska's Medallions (1947).
Witness to two world wars and Poland's struggle for independence, Zofia
Nalkowska's commitment to recording all is her gift to European
literature. Her own story of love affairs, family loyalty and survival
is remarkable in itself. Yet, her determination to record others' truth,
however painful, ties her fate to a nation whose battle for identity is
both brutal and romantic. Her most renowned work, Medallions, a
collection of short stories, exposes and restores dignity to people
reduced, through Nazi occupation, to burnt out ghettos and guillotined
heads heaped 'like potatoes'. In contrast, as a keen and visionary
observer of beauty, Nalkowska is innovative in exploring motherhood's
psychological imprint and the blurred boundaries of male and female
relationships. Drawing on her own background as a poet and Polish
Studies graduate, Jenny's Robertson's literary biography celebrates the
achievements of a pioneering writer whose love of life not only
propelled her to fame, but gave her the courage to witness atrocity. In
doing so, Nalkowska's life and writing reflect and inform Europe's
cultural heritage.
