( CNN ) -- Last month , the Polish city of Krakow joined the likes of Dublin and Edinburgh to become the latest Unesco City of Literature . Most people could probably name a Scottish or Irish author , but how about a Polish one ? Readers who are not Polish or of Polish descent face a few obstacles to opening the rich and different world of Polish literature . Firstly , Poland is not a world player , and we tend to become interested in a country 's culture only when it is a global power or a real or possible threat to us . Secondly there is the spelling and pronouncing of names . We can handle the Russian transliteration of Gregory as Grigory . But the Polish for Gregory , alas , is Grzegorz . All those z 's . ( I played Scrabble with a friend in Warsaw : a player gets one point for a Z . ) Obstacle three is that the jewel in the crown of Polish literature is its poetry , and unfortunately poetry is what usually gets lost in translation ( though the translations have been improving ) . However it 's worth facing and overcoming these obstacles , because the Polish way of looking at the world has plenty to teach us . If Polish literature began in the Renaissance it blossomed in mid-19th century Romanticism . The Shakespeare of Polish Romanticism was the poet Adam Mickiewicz . His `` Pan Tadeusz , '' a novel in verse , restores a lost world through the magic of art . There is dalliance , swordplay , music , a hunt -- but even a humble vegetable patch delights . Fast forward to the 20th century and Polish poetry and drama took a turn towards the avant-garde . The poetry had been remarkable from the beginning , but Cyprian Norwid , a contemporary of Emily Dickinson ( his verse is strikingly similar to her quiet , difficult lyricism ) , showed the way to modern understatement . Check out Zbigniew Herbert and Poland 's Nobel laureate Wisława Szymborska . Absurdism and dark humor are Polish specialties and appear in the playful stories and novels of Witold Gombrowicz . Lovers of science fiction should know Stanisław Lem . A Kraków native , Lem became internationally known for `` Solaris , '' ( which gave rise to two films , one by Andrei Tarkovsky and a Hollywood version by Steven Soderbergh ) , satirical fantasy `` The Cyberiad , '' and essays on humanity and future technology . His work is marked by fun , pain , and a probing intelligence . READ MORE : Poland 's tangible heritage . All these poets , playwrights , novelists , and essayists write about the human condition , but there has always been a political element to most Polish literature ; a consequence of growing up in a country with a history of partition and repeated defeat . Poland was a major European power during the 17th and 18th centuries . However weak kings and lack of organization led to a political vacuum and the country ceased to exist without a fight in 1795 when Prussia , Austria , and Russia divided it up among themselves . Poland did not exist again as a state until after World War I . During that long period of nationlessness , poets and novelists strove to preserve Polish identity at home and abroad . Soldiers fought in other lands , hoping to make a future Poland possible ; and young men periodically sacrificed themselves in uprisings that were crushed ( 1830 , 1848 , 1863 ) . Poles became known for their idealism , their valor in the face of overwhelming odds , their splendid if suicidal recklessness , their patriotism , and -- understandably , given that over and over again this patriotism proved futile -- for their cynicism . The 20th century added another shadow to the Polish mind : the Holocaust ; before World War II , Poland had the largest Jewish community in Europe . Poland fought with the Allies but `` in reward '' ( a Polish smile of irony here ) had to spend the next fifty years behind the Iron Curtain . Irony is not unique to Polish writers but they are masters of it . It 's telling that an American writer much loved in Poland today is Philip K. Dick , who felt that the world was against him . I offer an emblematic moment in Polish literature . A much loved author to Poles is Henryk Sienkiewicz . In `` With Fire and Sword , '' a historical novel set in the mid-17th century , the soldier Longinus Podbipięta reminds us of Don Quixote . He has taken a vow of chastity and he may not pursue the object of his affections until he has cut off three enemy heads with a single blow of his enormous Crusader 's sword . He manages that but then , without hesitation , offers himself up to martyrdom . The mix of humor , bitterness , and religious faith : very Polish . Michael Kandel received his PhD in Slavic at Indiana University . He works as an editor for the Modern Language Association . For Words without Borders he recently translated , from Polish , `` Balm of a Long Farewell , '' by Marek Huberath .
Get over the tricky spelling and Polish literature has plenty to offer , says editor and author Michael Kandel . The first thing you notice about this book is that it looks like a novel. Wisława Szymborska was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996 . Irony , dark humor and faith are all common themes in Polish literature .