MORE FROM THE MAREK KRAJEWSKI INTERVIEW
5) Will the other books in the Mock Quartet be published one a year or at the same time?
[Well I could hope couldn't I as I am certainly looking forward to the other books.]
I do not know that, it is a question to my English publisher, Mr Christopher MacLehose. [see note end of post]
6) Will they be filmed and which of them would you like to see as a movie?
I sold the film rights to my three novels and I expect a big English-language movie with international cast and a twelve -episode TV series. I am happy that almost the whole cycle will be made into a film.
7) Breslau had a mixed ethnic population before the Second World War, is Wroclaw now mostly Polish?
Before the Second World War Breslau was inhabited by Germans and entirely assimilated Jews, who differed from their co-citizens only in the matter of religion- not language, outfit or habits. There was also a small Polish minority.
Much earlier the town was Prussian, Austrian, Czech and Polish.
Although today Breslau [Wroclaw] is a Polish town with a homogenous population, its inhabitants are very much interested in its multicultural history.
8) Poland lost a huge proportion of its population during the war, and now it is losing many of the most talented young people who are moving to the UK to find work. How do you think Poland will cope?
This is a question for politicians and sociologists, and not a modest crime writer. My answer therefore will be intuition based: we will manage. As we did in the past with more serious problems!
9) The wartime occupation seems to dominate much of Norwegian crime fiction. Do you think that the Second World War and the Cold War will continue to dominate Polish crime fiction in the future?
I do not see a distinct and clear trend in the Polish literature connected with the wartime occupation. It might be present in the genre of historical crime novels, which seems to be more and more popular in Poland.
It is my pleasure to be one of its representatives.
I would like to thank Marek for his time and his very thoughtful interesting answers to my questions.
Lucy Ramsey of Quercus books for arranging the interview and not forgetting of course Karen of Euro Crime for providing the book.
The good news is that the End of the World in Breslau, number two in the Eberhard Mock Quartet, will be published in English in March 2009.
posted by Uriah Robinson at 1:48 AM
6 Comments:
Thanks for the interview. Perhaps these books will stand next to Carlo Lucarelli's De Luca trilogy as crime novels that work as telling historical commentary as well. And I had not known about the pseudonymous Communist-era Polish crime writers. That's a nice piece of social and literary history.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
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Thanks Peter I can't wait to see if the next book set in 1927 is as interesting.
I haven't read the third De Luca yet, but crime fiction is such a good educational tool that there must be a university course on it somewhere?
There is indeed, Norm: Canterbury, Texas, Queen's (Belfast), Lancaster, New York at Binghampton, Central European at Budapest, Cardiff, Minnesota...in fact, heading in the direction of ubiquity. Courses focus variously upon crime fiction and ideology, gender, race, science, politics and society in the Augustan and Victorian periods... Texas has a course devoted to Scandinavian crime fiction as a reflection of recent social and political developments in those lands.
On the point that you and Peter make, I would mention John Lawton's Troy novels as providing often acute social and political commentary in an historical setting, i.e., Britain from the late thirties through the early sixties.
Philip, I knew there were some courses but not as many as that. Thanks for the information.
Crimeficreader is a John Lawton fan and has highly recommended his books in the past.
With two such knowledgeable readers pushing his series it looks like more for the TBR pile.
Hello Uriah:
I don't have anything to add to the conversation about crime novels, but I do have a question about a post of yours from about a year and a half ago that just came up on Google for me. It contained evidence of something I've been searching for for many years and was starting to think I was imagining: the fact that Chicago does indeed have a city song, which vanished sometime in the early-mid 60s without a trace. It was still extant when I was in elementary school in South Shore in the late 50s and early 60s; I don't remember if we sang it in high school. However, by around 1970, it had apparently disappeared as Mike Rokyo was sponsoring a contest in the Daily News to find a city song for Chicago and seemed to have no idea we already had one. Can you tell me where you found it or how you knew it? My email is anastasjoy@aol.com.
I have lived in Cleveland, Ohio for many decades but my heart is in Chicago wherever I may roam. (My sister still lives in Hyde Park).
Anastasia Pantsios
If you tell me what the post was I might be able to help you as I did do a blog for a short time on the year 1908? Was it on that blog?
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