In this autobiographical initiation novel, the monumental, socialist realist space of Warsaw’s Nowa Praga becomes the center of the world, a map that the young character constantly expands in space and time. The Praga Park, the Old and New Towns come alive, as well as the capital’s bridges along. There is Różycki’s bazaar, there are iconic cinemas, a zoo and a saturator….
The book is painfully honest. It is full of fantasies, it can be hysterically funny, it can be appealing. And yet it is not a book about the Polish People’s Republic. It is a story about growing up in the times of the People’s Republic of Poland - in a world full of absurdities and limitations, which remains fascinating for a child anyway.
