STEFAN GRABINSKI - ON THE HILL OF ROSES

Hieroglyphic Press have just published a translation (by Miroslav Lipinski) of Stefan Grabinski's first full collection of fantastical and macabre stories, On the Hill of Roses (1918). Grabinski's work has gradually been appearing from independent and small presses over the last couple of decades. This quiet renascence of interest allows us to appreciate the late and strange flowerings of a sombre but exquisite Symbolist. This edition is well-designed, with a beautiful dustjacket appropriate to the title. Mark Samuels provides a brief, affectionate foreword about discovering Grabinski, and the translator a very helpful introduction, explaining just how singular Grabinski was in the Polish literature at the time, and outlining the tragedy of the author's life, and subsequent neglect. The stories will appeal to all connoisseurs of the fantastic and decadent in European literature.