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January 20, 2021

A Polish Novel of Jewish Gangsters in Old Warsaw

Intertwined worlds, completely separate.

Published in Polish in 2017 to much acclaim, and now available in English translation, Szczepan Twardoch’s The King of Warsaw is set in 1937 and has as its protagonist a Jewish gangster-cum-professional boxer. Such a setup—especially given Poland’s continued, tortured relationship with its bygone Jews—could be a recipe for anti-Semitism or, at the very least, the perpetuation of ugly stereotypes. But Eddy Portnoy finds instead an impressive work of literary fiction:

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January 20, 2021

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    Intertwined worlds, completely separate.