Devet

In three days of wandering through the divided Warsaw of the late 1990s – from the bright to the dark side of the city – Paweł seeks salvation, meeting nine characters, from criminals, drug addicts, to ordinary girls and men. Through their stories, he experiences betrayals, fights, unrealized sexual adventures and profound symbolic encounters that reveal the chaos of post-communist Poland.

Stasiuk, born in 1960 in Warsaw, a former deserter and prisoner, lives in the Carpathians where he runs the Czarne publishing house. In “Nine” he combines pathos with lyricism, sarcasm with artistry, creating a poetic labyrinth of urban existence. The novel depicts a generation freed from ideology, but lost in alienation from family, neighbors and friends, more clearly than any study. Warsaw becomes Joyce’s Dublin – a metaphysical space of marginalized souls, where lust, violence and the melancholy of transition collide.

It ends abruptly, without resolution, without victory or defeat, leaving the reader in suspense. Praised for its linguistic sophistication and provocativeness, "Nine" is one of the best novels of the nineties, a bridge between European tradition and contemporary nightmare.