Far away and yet so near is a metaphoric title that somehow defines all the collected texts.

It embraces what is here and now as well as what seems distinctive, imperishable and… essential? Even if not – still important and inseparable. All of the discussed writers – Konwicki, Kuncewiczowa, Stojowski, Vincenz, Hemar, Wierzyński, Filipowicz, Pavel – are without a doubt virtuosos, who undertook a breakneck task of engraving their pivotal, fundamental experiences in literature.

The collection includes essays sharing a clearly determined theme – autobiographic works of writers, who experienced war, occupation, Eastern Polish and Galician myths, as well as post-war political turmoil – including Stalinism, social realism and the Polish thaw. 

The inclusion of the trope of angling, present in the writings of Kornel Filipowicz and Ota Pavel, an exceptional author from the Czech Republic, may come as a surprise. It is easy to underestimate its importance, but the theme is by no means trivial. The moments of solitude in the wild, with a fishing rod as a sole companion, were cherished times of escape from the war trauma.