MANUELA GRETKOWSKA
A novelist, she was born in Lodz in 1964. She graduated from the Jagiellonian University in Cracow with a degree in philosophy and went to Paris in 1988 to study medieval anthropology at the École des Hautes Études Sociales in Paris. She published her first novel, WE ARE RUSSIAN EMIGRÉS, in 1990. That and her next three books deal with Paris and the loves of a protagonist quite similar to Gretkowska herself; the barely-sketched plot is interwoven with essays of a historical-literary or popular scientific nature, reportage, ironic commentaries, the grotesque, and heretical religious treatises. Although her first book contains echoes of political protest, Gretkowska was never a political emigré. She is rather a citizen of the world who can live and work anywhere. She returned to Poland in the early 1990s to work on the staff of the local version of Elle, before leaving for Sweden, where she now lives, in 1997.

Gretkowska's books are bestsellers, evoking extensive comment and heated emotions. Her prose, variously described as post-modernist, feminist, metaphysical, or scandal-mongering, has won a broad and varied readership. Her book, WORLD WATCHER, appeared in 1998, is a collection of reportage from various countries, highly personal and full of digressions as always, some of which had previously been published in Elle.


Source: www.polska2000.pl
Copyright: Stowarzyszenie Willa Decjusza



Selected Bibliography:

MY ZDIES EMIGRANTY / WE ARE RUSSIAN EMIGRÉS, Warsaw: W.A.B., 1990
TAROT PARYSKI / THE PARISIAN TAROT, Cracow: Oficyna literacka, 1993
KABARET METAFIZYCZNY / METAPHYSICAL CABARET, Warsaw: W.A.B., 1994
PODRECZNIK DO LUDZI / A TEXTBOOK ON PEOPLE, Warsaw: Beba Mazeppo & Co., 1996
SWIATOWIDZ / WORLD WATCHER, Warsaw: W.A.B., 1998
NAMIETNIK / THE PASSIONARY, Warsaw: W.A.B, 1998
SILIKON, Warsaw: W.A.B, 2000
POLKA, Warsaw: W.A.B, 2001 more...
SCENY Z ZYCIA POZAMALZENSKIEGO / SCENES FROM OUT OF A MARRIAGE (with Piotr Pietucha), Warszawa: W.A.B., 2003

Selected translations:

French: LE TAROT DE PARIS, Paris: Flammarion, 1996