Radosław Chrześciański

This is a story about the inhabitants of a block of flats standing alone on the outskirts of an industrial city. Unemployment, lack of prospects, and powerlessness create a special aura in which events unfold. The main character, 25-year-old Goździk, has lived here since he was born. He does not work or study.

In 1776 Vienna, imperial counselor Henryk Klein investigates allegations that the charismatic Jewish nobleman Jakub Frank is a fraud whose sect has ruined Galician Jew Jakub Goliński’s family and fortunes. As Klein’s inquiry uncovers Frank’s secret militia, escalating influence, and suspected treason against Empress Maria Theresa’s court, he must decide how far to expose the messianic impostor without igniting sectarian unrest.

Simona Kossak - daughter of the painter Jerzy Kossak and granddaughter of Wojciech - deprived of the talent that has defined her family for generations, grows up without knowing the warmth of her despotic mother. When, after graduation, she leaves everything - home, tradition, social conventions - and takes up a job as a scientist in Białowieża, she starts life on her own terms.

Summer of 1945. A temporary orphanage is established in an abandoned palace surrounded by forests for the eight children liberated from the Gross-Rosen camp. Hanka, also a former inmate, becomes their guardian. After the atrocities of the camp, the protagonists slowly begin to regain what is left of their childhood but the horror returns quickly. Camp Alsatians roam the forests around. Released by the SS earlier on, they have gone feral and are starving. Looking for food they besiege the palace. The children are terrified and their camp survival instinct is triggered.

Ewa works as a translator. She gives private english lessons and lives alone, but has a strong bond with her parents and sister Joanna. One day she got a package from her former boyfriend Eryk who writes her that he’s starting a journey. Reading his notes Ewa starts to think that description of his journey is chronicle of Eric’s sickness and depression and all of his story is fiction.