World Famous in Poland – Paryż nocą

That’s a quote from a movie, by the way — To Be or Not to Be, a Mel Brooks film.  Somebody asks Ann Bancroft, who plays Brooks’ wife (who also happens to be his real-life wife), about her actor husband, and she tells them, “He’s world famous in Poland!”

Now I’m proud to say that I, too, am world famous in Poland, thanks to Marcin Kucharski.  He liked my story “Paris, at Night” enough that he wanted to translate it to his native tongue.  So for those literate in Polish, give my story a read.

Paryż nocą

Dziś był dzień ryżu, 20. kilogramowe worki ryżu w ciężarówkach z logo słonia. Dokładnie ten sam słoń pojawia się na torbach- z głową podniesioną ku niebu i trąbą wykrzywioną w kształt litery S.

  • Słoń – powiedział Todd

Powiedział to, gdyż jakiś pracownik gapił się bezustannie na logo. Oznacza to, że się obijał.

  • Właśnie! – wykrzyknął mężczyzna. – Nie mogłem przypomnieć sobie słowa.

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Drifting House, by Krys Lee

Check out my review of Krys Lee’s excellent collection of short stories, Drifting House, in today’s issue of the Financial Times.

In her powerful debut collection, Drifting House, Korean-American author Krys Lee plumbs the darkness on both sides of this divided nation. Indeed, an alternate title for this volume of nine stories might have been “Koreans in Trouble”; these are people in dire straits – be it a father who loses his job, his family and his sanity, or a young girl with an incarcerated mother. The stories – some set 50 years ago, others in the present day – are steeped in Korean culture, history and food.