About time
Time is an essential building block for writers. In their latest novels, Solvej Balle, Andrés Barba and Agnieszka Szpila display the creative possibilities. Time is no longer linear, but plastic: it makes loops and leaps, stands still or moves in reverse. Characters become pawns of time, with surprising results.
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In her cycle of novels On the Calculation of Volume (the first two volumes have been published in English by New Directions), Danish author Solvej Balle tells the story of Tara Selter, a woman for whom time has stood still and who awakens every day on 18 November. While everyone around her experiences this day for the first time, it is only for her that time stands still. This gives her the freedom to question her life.
In El último día de la vida anterior, Andrés Barba’s latest book, a real-estate agent prepares an empty house for a viewing and, in the process, suddenly comes face to face with a seven-year-old child who stares at her unabashedly. She is inexplicably attracted to the boy and starts a conversation with him. She gives up her attempts to sell the house, but continues to guard it and keeps returning to it in secret.
back to the past
Anna Szajbel is the heroine of Heksy, the second novel by Agnieszka Szpila. The CEO of an oil company, Anna leads a luxurious life with her husband, who has been confined to a wheelchair since his car accident. One night, while sleepwalking, she is filmed making love to a tree, leading to her public humiliation and dismissal. However, these events cause her to make a discovery that whisks her back to a seventeenth-century duchy, where she finds herself among a group of women who worship the earth.
A magical panel discussion on three books that challenge time.
about the authors
Andrés Barba (b. 1975 in Madrid) is a writer, poet, photographer and essayist. He broke through in Spain with the novel La hermana de Katia (made into a film by Mijke de Jong) and his novels have won several prizes, including the prestigious Premio Heralde de Novela for A Luminous Republic. He has taught at Bowdoin College (US) and is currently a professor at the University of Madrid.
Solvej Balle (b. 1962) studied literature and philosophy. She made her debut at the age of 24 and established her name as a writer in the 1990s. She has published several novels, poems and short prose works. The author’s breakthrough, According to the Law, was published in 1993. The novel was clearly inspired by such great storytellers as Franz Kafka and Jorge Luis Borges and was soon listed among the best books of the century by Danish newspaper Politiken. Her work has been compared to that of Peter Seeberg and Villy Sørensen, two heavyweights of Danish literature. She lives on the small island of Ærø, where she runs her own publishing company with her son.
Agnieszka Szpila was born in Poland in 1977. She holds a degree in cultural studies and is a writer, screenwriter and activist. She made her literary debut in 2015 with the publication of the story ‘Łebki od Szpilki’. Her first novel, Bardo, was published in 2018 and soon became a bestseller. Her second novel, Heksy, whose rights have been sold in eight languages, was a finalist for the prestigious Nike Prize. It was adapted for the stage and became a huge hit with audiences and the press in Poland.
about the moderator
Antoine Kauffer is an editorial consultant specialising in depictions of nature in historic and contemporary cultural production, in France and abroad.
Organisation: Passa Porta, Polish Institute Brussels.
