Chołod is a novel written by Szczepan Twardoch and published in 2022 by Wydawnictwo Literackie in book and e-book form.[1]
 | |
| Author | Szczepan Twardoch |
|---|---|
| Language | Polish |
| Publisher | Wydawnictwo Literackie |
Publication date | 26 October 2022 |
| ISBN | 978-83-080-7682-8 |
Plot
Chołod is named after a settlement in the far north, inhabited by a small community living according to its own laws, isolated from civilization. A Silesian, Konrad Widuch, fleeing a Soviet gulag, settles there and describes his stay in Chołod and his earlier turbulent and dramatic fate in his memoirs. In a mysterious way, the memoirs find their way to the author of the book, who reconstructs them and explains how they came into his hands.[1][2]
Reception
Chołod received favourable reviews. Marcin Belza of Kultura Liberalna praised the book, noting that "this is a novel that doesn't think for us" and that "plays out the themes of identity in a virtuoso way".[3] On Forbes it was noted that Chołod is an attempt to get to the meaning of history.[4] It has also been widely covered by other Polish language media.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11] It has been nominated for the Empik Bestsellers 2022 in the categories of fiction and audio superfiction and Lubimyczytać.pl Book of the Year 2022 in the category of historical novel.[12][13]