Maria Nurowska: Sprawa Niny S. (Nina S. Case)

This new Nurowska's book was a great come back to Polish literature for me. The book centralises around the murder of Jerzy Baran, middle aged solicitor whose body is found in his office in Warsaw with five bullets in his chest. The suspects are Nina S., a well known book writer and Jerzy's ex-partner and her two twin grown-up daughters. And so the interrogation begins. The officer investigating the case goes through sessions of evidence gathering with Nina's daughters which gives us a detail picture of the family history and events that lead to Nina's relationship with Jerzy. He also goes through Nina's personal diary and learns about Nina's childhood, relationship with the twin daughters' father, twins' childhood, their life experiences and relationships... Nina's relationship with Jerzy did not end well - she gave up everything for him - her money, the family old residence, her time, her career, her feelings. And he took it all and then left her with no remorse. All the facts make the officer deduct that Nina is the person who has most reasons to commit this murder. But as the investigation goes on the less he believes she did it.

Even though the book spins around the case it really is a book about women. About their first relationships with men and how they impact the next ones, the relationships between mothers and their children, the emotions and feelings that accompany them, the tough times to write and publish books in the post-communist Poland. All these reflect a lot of Nurowska's life herself, there are plenty of autobiographical plots in this book. Nurowska spent nine years in a relationship with her Jerzy Baran who left her heart-broken and unwilling to do anything else in her life. Given all this I suppose killing Mr Baran in this book is her revenge. She also knows first hand what it was like to publish books in Poland in the 1990s and in interviews she often says she had more recognition in Germany then in her motherland. Her books have been translated to German, French and Czech, not to English, which is a shame as this book as well as some of her earlier ones are really worth reading. Here is a very recent interview with her (in Polish).

One of the characters says in the book: "It's not the facts that kill us, it's the meaning we assign to them". And then after such a statement we are faced with all the tragic love relationships of Nina and her daughters, the love that almost killed Nina (and Nurowska) and all you can say to that is "easier said than done". But it's good to see hope in Nurowska's life - she's now busy building her own bed & breakfast in Zakopane, surrounded by friends she trusts. And you know there's hope for Nina too.

I really liked this book, I like Nurowska's narration style and I'm looking forward to going home for Christmas and getting some more of her books!

And I also wonder why it is so much more difficult for me to write about a Polish book in English...?

My rating: YYYYY