New book: The Grenade Doesn't Fall Far from the Apple Tree

Lina held Ewa tightly, in case someone tried to tear her away. But she didn't hesitate for a second. She walked along the edge of the column. She stretched out her arms, her muscles burning. She tensed them, threw the child as far as she could, over the fence, among the apple trees. It started to cry. She heard no more, they walked as if wound up, no one paid attention. Probably no one. The protagonist of this book is driven by the call of survival and longing for her daughter. Was the child she found in an orphanage after the war that girl? Why did she agree to let the Tuwim couple adopt her? When half a century later the two women finally meet, there is still no certainty as to who they are to each other. Can the story explain it? Agnieszka Dauksza writes with precision and literary mastery about characters entangled in strategies of survival, assimilation and advancement. She investigates what is most probable in their fates, juxtaposes contradictory reasons, does not resolve others' and her own doubts. She asks how to define the status of lost children and mothers, how to speak of people without origins, of people who are castaways. Details on the Nowy Teatr website .