Stone Tablets

An influential Polish classic celebrates 50 yearsand its first English edition. As Stone Tablets opens, Istvan Terey, a poet and World War II veteran, is serving as cultural attache with the Hungarian embassy in Delhi just a few months before his country is torn apart by the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. He is personable and popular with Indians and Europeans, communists and capitalists, but his outspoken criticisms of corruption in the Hungarian government and the embassy threaten to undermine his career. Meanwhile, he has fallen in love with Margit, an Australian ophthalmologist working in India, who is still living through a tragedy of her own: her fiance died under torture during World War II. Draining heat, brilliant color, intense smells, and intrusive animals enliven this sweeping Cold War romance. Based on the authors own experience as a Polish diplomat in India in the late 1950s, Stone Tablets was one of the first literary works in Poland to offer scathing criticisms of Stalinism, and was censored when it was first submitted for publication. Stephanie Krafts translation opens this book for the first time to English-speaking readers. A high-paced, passionate narrative in which every detail is vital.Leslaw Bartelski Zukrowski is a brilliantly talented observer of life, a visionary skilled at combining the concrete with the magical, lyricism with realisma distinguished stylist.Leszek Zulinski