Keynote
A subtle, polyphonic novel about trauma and the need for tenderness. The histories of Poland and Silesia from women’s
perspectives.

Selling Points

- The latest book by this widely admired award-winning author, known for addressing difficult and painful topics (her previous novel, Mount Taygetus, spoke of Nazi crimes committed on the patients of a Silesian psychiatric hospital).

- A dense, multi-tiered family saga, with parallel strands in the late 1940s and the present.
- The history of the twentieth century wholly told by women. Dziwit-Meller gives the floor to the female protagonists who
have been silenced for decades.
- An unusual tale of postwar Poland, of the bright and dark sides of the emerging communist nation.
- Silesia is an extraordinary, multicultural, and diverse place with a complex history. Dziwit-Meller portrays it in a multidimensional light, introducing whole new motifs and contexts. The Silesian identity is still far from being
fully told.
- A polyphonic tale that tackles the complex history of Poland – Dziewit‑Meller speaks of the very languagewomen have used to build their stories.
- An insightful psychological study of mother-daughter relationships.
- An emotional pursuit of a family mystery – like a detective, step by step, the protagonist gets to the source of
the trauma that has been poisoning her family for years.
- A classical novel, written without  unnecessary formal divagations, and with epic sweep.
- Dziewit-Meller is known and acclaimed in Poland, and a media-friendly figure – she publishes opinion pieces,
hosts a videoblog on literature, and is the author of a highly popular book series for children, Ladies, Lasses, Little Girls.

Description
Four generations of women, each of them stamped with the same trauma. Though bound by blood ties, there is no closeness
between them. It all began in Silesia rightafter the war. The main protagonist’sgreat-grandmother buried a painful experience deep inside of her, trying to leave past behind. Unfortunately, the past events she once repressed haunt her like ghosts. She cannot cope with them, andthus unconsciously vents her sufferingon her child. The intergenerationaltransmission of trauma thus goes on – itcannot be extinguished, like a blisteringsore it radiates pain, stronger andstronger, on and on.

Dziewit-Meller’s book is the tale of womenwho love one another but cannot help buthurt each other. It is also about a burning
need for contact and intimacy. And finally, it is a tale of Silesia itself, a place where no identity is simple or straightforward.
The youngest woman in this family tree, Katarzyna Twardowska, born in the 1980s,decides to break this cursed cycle of
toxic insinuations, wounds, and secrets.She wants to rebuild contact with those around her, especially as she herself is
expecting a child. She wants her daughterto grow up in a better world.

Target Market
Readers of ambitious women’s prose.
Lovers of profound and nuanced psychological novels.
Those interested in the twentieth-centuryhistory of Poland.