White Nights

White Nights is the debut work of prose by acclaimed Polish poet Urszula Honek. At first glance, the volume is made up of standalone short stories about the tragedies and misfortunes that befall a group of people who all grew up in the same village in southern Poland. At closer inspection, though, the stories reveal themselves to be intricately intertwined, slotting together to form an overarching narrative.

In sumptuous and lyrical language, Honek tells stories of poverty, disappointment, tragedy, and despair, but manages to find sources of light in these typically dark themes. Packed with exquisite local detail, the stories are nevertheless clearly couched in a more universal context of meaning.

»Through a cast of characters each facing their own existential crises, Honek crafts a narrative mosaic that explore themes of isolation, identity, death and the longing for connection...White Nights is a dark, lyrical exploration of the ways in which people seek meaning and belonging in a transient world.« - International Booker Prize 2024 Judges

»In this cruel world, literature is able to discover beauty. Urszula Honek does this masterfully.« Andrzej Stasiuk

»A highly artistic study of death encapsulated in moving stories, [where] the setting seems to be a symbol of a larger (ultimately, cosmic) universe, signalled by a reality that is limited to a small number of characters…Honek reveals the bright side of something that is usually only known and seen through darkness.« Paulina Subocz-Białek

»Lyricism and brutality. The almost poetic beauty and trivial ugliness of everyday life. And everything is wrapped in a web of sadness and melancholy. The author knows how to create a mood and shows, to put it grandiosely, sensitivity to the human condition.« Anna Kozłowska, SwipeTo

»With complete cruelty, but also mastery, Honek symbolically kills her influences. She stands firmly on her own two feet, moving readers with her own voice - immediately clear, set and full.« Paulina Małochleb, Empik Critics' Choice