City of Sand
Aldona Kasztan
Winner of the 2019 Aschehoug Debutant Prize
Alina grows up in the 1980’s, behind the iron curtain in the Polish city of Lódz. Even as
a child, she realizes that there is something wrong with the city’s memory, that a part
of the past is covered up and silenced. Still, for Alina, there are traces everywhere of everything that took place during the war, moulded in the street grid, engraved in the pavement, visible in buildings, walls and staircases.
She learns of Brunon, the Jewish man who
lived in the city ghetto generations ago.
Fragments of his life start appearing to her
as if they were her own memories. Can one 9person relive the life of another? Can she take
it upon her to remember what the city seems to have forgotten? Can she choose not to?
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