History of a Disappearance with Polish Author Filip Springer and Translator Sean Gasper Bye
The Booksmith |1644 Haight Street | San Francisco, CA
This event has already taken place.
History of a Disappearance (Restless Books) is the fascinating true story of Miedzianka, a small mining town in the southwest of Poland that, after seven centuries of history, disappeared in the decades after World War II.
In this collection of unsparing and insightful reportage, Filip Springer rediscovers this tiny town’s history. Digging beyond the village’s mythic foundations and the great wars and world leaders that shaped it, Springer catalogs the lost human elements: the long-departed tailor and deceased shopkeeper; the parties, now silenced, that used to fill the streets with shouts and laughter; and the once-beautiful cemetery, with gravestones upended by tractors and human bones scattered by dogs. In Miedzianka, Springer sees a microcosm of European history, and a powerful narrative of how the ghosts of the past continue to haunt us in the present day.
We’ll talk with the author Filip Springer and translator Sean Gasper Bye about bringing this intriguing book into English.
Read an excerpt of the book here.
This event is co-presented by the Polish Cultural Institute New York.