Join translator Philip Boehm and professor of comparative literature Bella Brodzki about Hanna Krall’s masterpiece, Chasing the King of Hearts. Described as a “masterpiece” by The Guardian, Hanna Krall tells the true-life story of one woman’s suffering in this canonical work of Polish reportage. When her husband is arrested and sent to Auschwitz, Izolda sacrifices everything to ensure his safety. Told in restrained vignettes, Izolda’s tale is a testament to survival.
Philip Boehm has translated over thirty novels and plays from German and Polish, by authors such as Herta Müller, Franz Kafka, and Ilija Trojanow. He has received fellowships from the NEA and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation as well as numerous awards including the Found in Translation Award for his rendering of Hanna Krall’s Chasing the King of Hearts. He also works as a playwright and stage director and is the founding Artistic Director of Upstream Theater in St. Louis.
Bella Brodzki is professor of comparative literature at Sarah Lawrence College. She teaches courses in autobiography, modern and contemporary fiction, literary and cultural theory, and translation studies. She is the coeditor of Life/Lines: Theorizing Women's Autobiography (1989) and author of Can These Bones Live?: Translation, Survival, and Cultural Memory (2007).
Hanna Krall
When her husband is arrested in Nazi-occupied Poland, Izolda endures unending brutality to ensure his safety.