This evening's book club will be co-hosted by our regular Polish book club! We will be discussing Things I Didn't Throw Out by Marcin Wicha, translated from the Polish by Marta Dziurosz.

Lamps, penknives, paperbacks, mechanical pencils, inflatable headrests. Marcin Wicha’s mother Joanna was a collector of everyday objects. When she dies and leaves her apartment intact, Wicha is left to sort through her things. Through them, he begins to construct an image of Joanna as a Jewish woman, a mother, and a citizen. As Poland emerged from the Second World War into the material meanness of the Communist regime, shortages of every kind shaped its people in deep and profound ways. What they chose to buy, keep – and, arguably, hoard – tells the story of contemporary Poland. Joanna’s Jewishness, her devotion to work, her formidable temperament, her weakness for consumer goods, all accumulate into an unforgettable portrait of a woman and, ultimately, her country. [Daunt Books]

Reviews

Devastatingly funny about the minutiae of family life and the foibles of the elders.--– Michael Cronin The Irish Times

A slim but charming memoir [...] Ably translated by Marta Dziurosz, this tender homage to one woman’s bibliomania doubles as a brisk overview of Poland’s postwar history --- Houman Barekat, The Guardian.

Winner of an English PEN Award.