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Title: A side of Stasiuk...
Review: So this is the first of Stasiuk's books to be translated into English... it's a powerful novel, and beautifully written. Contrary to the Publishers' Weekly summary, it is not clear that an act of murder has indeed been comitted; the evidence in the book leans against it.This story unfortunately doesn't showcase Stasiuk's greatest gift, which is his uncanny ability to be incredibly precise both in his introspection and his perceptions of the world. This sounds abstract, but think of Saul Bellow, except that Stasiuk is more immediate, and more respectful of the strangeness of the world. I am thinking of some of the essays in Tekturowy Samolot, or of the travel sketches he published recently in Rzeczpospolita. So far, only Polish readers have been able to enjoy these.
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