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Issue Details: First known date: 2005... 2005 Muchołap
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Notes

  • English translation of the title: Flycatcher

Contents

* Contents derived from the Melbourne, Victoria,:Tygodnik Polski , 2005 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Śpiewak, Henryk Jurewicz , single work short story

The story tells of the narrator's experiences of hearing an unknown elderly man with the voice of a virtuoso sing operatic arias in Polish delicatessens in Melbourne.

(p. 3-6)
Piąty wymiar drukarki laserowej, Henryk Jurewicz , single work short story

The story describes the narrator's frustrating encounter with a mysteriously malfunctioning second-hand laser printer, which appears to have a life of its own.

(p. 7-13)
Franek, Henryk Jurewicz , single work short story

The story tells of the Polish migrant narrator's encounter, in a migrant transit camp in Italy, with a Polish-Arab boy called Franek. Franek is regularly beaten by his single mother, who is unable to cope with caring for her disabled daughter, and takes her frustrations out on her son. Franek asks the narrator why God allows suffering. The narrator is unable to provide a satisfactory answer, and is left feeling he has failed the boy.

(p. 14-21)
Portki Wilka, Henryk Jurewicz , single work short story

'Portki Wilka' is the story of a long-suffering husband, Stanisław Wilk, whose wife appropriates all of his salary for herself and refuses to buy him even a pair of trousers when his only pair is worn out. The character's surname means 'Wolf' in Polish, which is incongruous given his henpecked nature. When he discovers that she has been hoarding his money for herself he emigrates to Australia, where he becomes rich, but finally he returns to Poland and loses his money due to the Edward Gierek government's new taxes.

(p. 22-28)
Miodowa 55, Henryk Jurewicz , single work short story

A story recounting the narrator's experience as a boy of taking a short cut home via Kazimierz, the ancient Jewish quarter of Kraków, throwing a stone through the Jewish cemetery-house window, and being caught by two Jewish men who attempt to punish him before he runs away.

(p. 29-37)
Moje Planty, Henryk Jurewicz , single work short story

A story that recounts the narrator's childhood experiences of the 'Planty', Krakow parks. The story focuses on the vandalist exploits of another boy, named Robert, directed against Soviet coal-trains and hence viewed as a form of Polish patriotic rebellion against Russia.

(p. 38-43)
Muchołap, Henryk Jurewicz , single work short story

A story about a Polish boy's experiences in a village on the outskirts of Kraków during the last stages of World War II. Certain details of the boy's life, such as his birth in the city of Lwów and arrival in Kraków as a young child, strongly suggest that the story is autobiographical (given the biographical note on the author included on the back cover). The boy is tormented by other boys in the village as a city child and a perceived weakling, until he finds his niche in their society as a skilled flycatcher.

(p. 44-50)
Rosyjska bomba, Henryk Jurewicz , single work short story

A story recounting the author's childhood memory of a close encounter with a Soviet bomb in Kraków in 1945, and later return visit from Australia with his wife in 2002 to photograph the scene where the bombing took place.

(p. 51-56)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Language: Polish
Last amended 5 Nov 2013 11:08:43
Subjects:
  • Lvov,
    c
    Poland,
    c
    Eastern Europe, Europe,
  • Melbourne, Victoria,
  • Krakow,
    c
    Poland,
    c
    Eastern Europe, Europe,
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