A revelatory and richly varied collection of Polands greatest short stories with a foreword by Nobel Prizewinner Olga TokarczukWitty surprising and sparkling this anthology is an essential exploration of Polish literature. Its thirtynine superb stories run the length of the literal and imaginative creation of Poland from 1918 when Poland regained its independence after 123 years of colonization by the neighbouring empires to the present.The stories include Miss Winczewska by the acclaimed twentiethcentury writer Maria Dabrowska 18891965 based on her experience of helping to establish a library for soldiers at the Citadel military base in Warsaw in the interwar period and In the Shadow of Brooklyn by Stanislaw Dygat 19141978 the comical tale of a young mans envy of what he imagines to be his fathers success with women. At the contemporary end it includes a story by Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk 1962 The Green Children a historical story set in 1656 narrated by a Scottish doctor who as the Polish kings physician travels about the wilds of Poland and encounters two feral children.