Polish Literature in English Reading Group – November 2026
November 18 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Free
Józef Wittlin, The Salt of the Earth. Translated by Patrick John Corness.
A classic pacifist novel along the lines of All Quiet on the Western Front, written by a Polish veteran during the interwar period and nominated for the Nobel Prize. Just in time for Polish Independence Day and Armistice Day.
“The villagers of the Carpathian Mountains lead a simple life at the beginning of the twentieth century – much as they have always done. They are isolated and remote, and the advances of the outside world have not touched them. Among them – Piotr, a bandy-legged peasant, whose ‘entire life involved carrying things’. A notional subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, all he wants in life is an official railway cap, a cottage with a mouse-trap and cheese, and a bride with a dowry. But then the First World War comes the mountains, and Piotr is drafted into the army. Unwilling, uncomprehending, the bewildered Piotr is forced to fight a war he does not understand – against his national as well as his personal interest. In a new translation, authorised by the author’s daughter, Salt of the Earth is a strongly pacifist novel inspired by the Odyssey, about the consequences of war on ordinary men.”
PACIM Library has copies of the book available in both English and Polish.
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