Sunday 12th May, 6pm-8pm (Polish House) – Evening with the Author- the event organized together with the Polish Embassy. Our special guest will be Mr Marek Stokowski, Polish writer and poet, a curator for the Malbork Castle Museum. There will be a presentation of Mr Stokowski’s latest book Stroiciel lasu (The Forest Tuner). The event will be mainly in Polish with live translation into English.
Meeting in Cork organized by Polish Embassy in Dublin and Centrum Wsparcia i Integracji „Together-Razem , 8 th May from 6pm to 8 pm, The Gresham Metropole, MacCurtain Street, Cork.
Meeting in Limerick organized by Polish Embassy in Dublin and Festiwal Sztuki Polskiej ,10 th May from 6 pm to 8 pm , St. Michael’s Church Tower, Denmark Street, Limerick
NOTE ON THE WRITER
Marek Stokowski, born in 1957, in Warsaw, Poland, Graduated from the University of Warsaw, Department of the History of Polish Language and Literature.
Postgraduate diploma from the University of Warsaw in the field of museum education.
Since 1983 – a curator working for Malbork Castle Museum. In 2009 he participated in the International Programme for Film Professionals at the Andrzej Wajda School in Warsaw.
He is a member of the Association of Polish Writers, and author of the following fiction and educational books:
* Dzień nad ciemna rzeka (A Day on the Dark River), a book of poems, Lublin 1996
* Sny dla dorosłych i dla dzieci (Dreams for Grownups and Children), humorous mini-stories, Gdansk 1998
* Krzyżacy, ich państwo i zamki (The Teutonic Knights, Their Monastic State and Castles), Wroclaw 2002
* Legendy i opowieści zamku Malbork (Legends and Tales of Malbork Castle) Gdańsk 2002 and 2005,
* Księga zamków państwa krzyżackiego w Prusach (A Book of the Teutonic Order State’s Castles in Prussia) – a large photo-album and journey through 16chosen Teutonic castles, Wena, Włocławek 2003
* Błazen (The Fool), a historic novel, Gdansk, 2004
* Zamek Malbork (Malbork Castle), a guidebook to Mafbork Castle, four language versions, HotSpot Guide, Hamburg 2004
* Noc tajemnic (The Night of Secrets), an adventurous-educational novel, Exter, Gdansk 2005
*Samo-loty (Airplanes), a contemporary novel, Wydawnictwo Santorski & CO, Warszawa 2005
* Zamek Gniew (Gniew Castle), a guidebook to Gniew Castle, three language versions, TopSpot Guide, Hamburg 2007
* Krzyżacy w kilku słowach (The Teutonic Knights Briefly), Wydawnictwo Turystyczne, Krakow 2008
* Stroiciel lasu (The Forest Tuner), a contemporary novel, Multico, Warszawa 2010
NOTE ON THE FOREST TUNER
A dog’s tale about a man.
The early 1990s. M – the main character from “Airplanes”, the previous novel by Stokowski – is awoken from a long coma. He tries to understand, why he has returned to the Earth.
After some months of treatment in a hospital and a longer stay in a nursing-home M leaves Warsaw and settles down in deep forests in North Poland.
There, accompanied with his dog, he passionately treks in the woodland, and gradually regains his physical and spiritual strength.
He becomes a forest tuner, someone who harmonizes trees and places that sound out of tune.
Deeply immersed in the forest M does not care for trees only. He tries to help a seriously ill girl, and finds his love.
He also fights againsf people who – for decades – have destroyed the harmony of the world and served the death.
An unexpected volte in the tale’s final makes readers doubt, whether the dog brought them to the geographical north or perhaps somewhere else.
“The Forest Tuner” is a novel about Poland after the political change in 1989, however the serious matters are told in a humorous way.
It’s a book about friendship, saving power of silence, need of remembrance, and the enormous force of laughter and dreams. It’s also an apology of telling strange stories.