Told in short bursts of "Time," the narrative takes the form of a stylized fable, an epic allegory about the inexorable grind of time and the clash between modernity (the masculine) and nature (the feminine) in which Poland's tortured political history from 1914 to the contemporary era and the episodic brutality visited on ordinary village life is played out. A novel of universal dimension that does not dwell on the parochial, Primeval and Other Times was hailed as a contemporary European classic and heralded Tokarczuk as one of the leading voices in Polish as well as world literature.

    The Journal is an account of events and reflections that offer the occasion for this great writer to continue rethinking and reimagining the human condition. These remarkable selections from Gustaw Herling's Journal, written from 1970 to the present, include such astonishing fictional tales, based on historical sources, as "Rubble," "The Duke of Milan," "The Miracle," and "A Venetian Portrait," a love story that takes place at the end of World War II. But the heart of the Journal is brilliant critical pieces on Soviet Communism and literary gems on such writers as Ignazio Silone, Stendhal, Melville, Kafka, Dostoevsky, and Camus.

    The authors interviewed Bachner in 1983, and did extensive historical research.