The King of Warsaw

After a quite slow start, the world of the Jewish mafia in pre-war Poland opens up. Jakup Szapiro is a handsome, Jewish, tough guy. Inside the ring, he is unbeatable. Also, outside the ring, everyone fears him because he works for Buddy Kaplica.

The novel takes place in Poland before the Second World War. At the same time, Hitler’s power in Germany is strengthening. Also, in Poland, a similar national movement emerges. Polish Jews are considering going to Palestine.

I wanted to read this novel before, but I’ve finally found the time to do so now. The slow start may put you off, but later events in the novel confirm that this book is definitely worth reading.

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Excerpt from the Book:

 

Twenty-eight thousand złotys. My father Naum Bernsztajn earned around a hundred złotys a month, in a good month. Which makes twelve hundred a year. Meaning Buddy’s car was worth over twenty-three years of my father’s labor. Word on the street was the mayor of Warsaw, Stefan Starzyński, earned thirty-five hundred a month. Poor men would sit by a wall or on the sidewalk and philosophize about what you could do with thirty-five hundred a month. These fantasies usually revolved around buying large amounts of food and throwing a gigantic party for the whole district. You could set up tables on the square, book a band, order a keg of beer and a few cases of vodka, get a whole pig from the best butchers on Marszałkowska Street, and celebrate for three days, like at a wedding. That’s what you could do if you had thirty-five hundred like Mayor Starzyński. But even Starzyński couldn’t afford Buddy’s car. Buddy had more.

 

Details:

• author: Szczepan Twardoch
• full title: The King of Warsaw
  
• genre: historical fiction
  
• format/type: bookfiction
• country: Poland
• topics: #crime, #jewishmafia
  
• publisher: Amazon Crossing
• publish date: April 21, 2020
• pages: 377
  

My Rating of the Book:

• content: 💙💙💙💙

 

Prizes

• ALTA National Translation Award Nominee for Prose (2021), 
• Europese Literatuurprijs Nominee (2020)
  

 

About the Author: 

Szczepan Lech Twardoch (born 23 December 1979 in Knurów) is a Polish writer. He has written a series of best-selling novels such as Morphine (2012), Drach (2014),The King (2016), The Kingdom (2018) and Pokora (2020).

The King has been turned into a TV series, first broadcast on the Canal+ network. He has won numerous literary prizes among them the Brücke Berlin-Preis and Le Prix du Livre Européen.