The first novel by Katarzyna Pranić “Ela-Sanela” won an award in the 2nd Astrid Lindgren Literary Competition. The criteria for evaluation were the text’s high artistic and aesthetic quality, as well as the fact that the book could be wholeheartedly recommended to a child. The competition’s organisers support the “All of Poland Reads to Kids” campaign.
As the author revealed at the meeting, the book’s subject matter is not easy and concerns the war in the Balkans. “The subject is close to me. I wanted to address military aggression. Little is said about it. The media describe aggression at schools or within families. I wanted to talk about what happens when aggression is allowed to emerge on a massive scale,” said Katarzyna Pranić.
The book describes the transformation of a girl named Ela, who was adopted by a Polish doctor as a small child. The girl grows up in a Polish family, but at the age of 12 discovers her roots. She is both Ela and Sanela, a Muslim from Bosnia.
“I did not describe any specific place in the book,” Pranić said at the meeting. “The town where Ela lives is an idyllic, small town where everything happens for the best. It is positive and cheerful in every sense. But it is true that the theatre I write about is our old Bolesławiec theatre, where I worked and which is now being renovated.”
The author agreed that the town she describes may bring Bolesławiec or its surroundings to readers’ minds, because our region is more closely connected with the Balkans than other parts of Poland. “I hear Serbo-Croatian spoken in the city streets, and Balkan music sometimes plays from cars,” Pranić related. “Balkan culture has taken root in our local culture, and many of us have either sentimental or family ties to the countries of the former Yugoslavia.”
At the beginning of the story, the book’s heroine enters a theatre building familiar to us. She sits in an armchair in the auditorium and is afraid to meet the children rehearsing. She is unaccustomed to her surroundings, like the fox from “The Little Prince”, her favourite book. When the children leave the stage, a cat suddenly appears there. At that moment, both the reader and Ela pass through to the other side of the looking glass—to the world of the excellent, wise, unique and gripping story “Ela-Sanela”.
The meeting with the author was organised by the Youth Cultural Centre and the “Agora” bookshop. The meeting was moderated by Józefina Witas. Young people from the Youth Cultural Centre presented a short theatrical étude featuring excerpts from the book. Katarzyna Pranić thanked her colleagues for their involvement in organising the meeting and honouring it with a theatrical touch.
The editorial team of the “Istotne Informacje” website and newspaper congratulates the author on her debut and recommends the book to children and adults.
(information: Grażyna Hanaf)