Rudolf

This novel, set in the 1970s, tells the story of the "author," a middle-aged Polish professor who lives abroad but who earlier survived the Nazi concentration camps, and Rudolf, an old man. Told in stream of consciousness as well as through a triangular correspondence among Rudolf, the author, and the author's mother, the story emerges as a tale of subversion and liberation that echoes Gombrowicz in its exploration of transgressive desire. It will be of great interest to those interested in Polish literature and to readers of gay and lesbian literature.

"Pankowski's novel is fluid, almost cinematic in style...Recommended for European fiction collections and collections supporting eastern European studies." --Library Journal

"A deeply poetic work. . .The characters here resonate with literary overtones. We think of Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice," Gide's Immoralist, and Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf."--World Literature Today