November Central European Book Club

18 November 2025, 18.00

We invite you to another meeting of the Central European Book Club, which will focus on Evelin Márton's novel “Solea Minor”. During the discussion, we will travel to the last piece of land that survived the great catastrophe and see how a dystopian story, full of absurdity and grotesquery, becomes a starting point for a discussion about relationships, crises and contemporary problems. The meeting will be hosted by the book's translator, Daniel Warmuz.

The eponymous island, the last piece of land left after the catastrophe, is inhabited by several eccentric characters who, due to climate change, have become long-lived but infertile. Instead of seeking understanding and salvation, they tease each other and devote themselves to work that is useless to anyone. The bitter Dżemme takes care of the cemetery, talks to seals and watches over the endless horizon. However, he prefers to spend his time alone in the basement nooks of his old house, where he sips wine and hunts for snails. One day, the blue-eyed E'Lam, born in a desert city and raised in the yurt of the fortune teller Indi ma'Maama Edemi, a postage stamp painter, appears in his life, as predicted in a prophecy. Will the neighbours trust in destiny, find a common language and face their “insane desires”? Or perhaps nothing is a coincidence, even though on the island “even those who deny miracles believe in them”?

Hungarian author Evelin Márton, originally from Transylvania, takes readers on a lyrical and grotesque journey into a post-apocalyptic world full of magic and absurdity. Although the novel is firmly rooted in the Central European literary and cultural imagination, it defies simple interpretation. It provokes further questions and opens up areas for discussion on various topics. The dystopian reality of Solea Minor may equally reflect the fate of small communities or deal with life in a post-pandemic world exposed to further threats. The topos of an island subject to the ruthless laws of nature is a contribution to the conversation about the condition of contemporary society, the climate crisis, the boundaries of identity and the role of knowledge in our lives.

The meeting will be moderated by the book's translator, Daniel Warmuz, a Hungarian and Polish language specialist, translator, researcher and populariser of Hungarian literature. He is the author of academic articles, essays and reviews. He translates prose, poetry and drama. His translations include the reportage book “Zimne crematorium” (2025), Zoltán Lesi's “Skok wzwyż” (2021) and Tibor Noé Kiss's “Incognito” (2017). He is the winner of the Adam Włodek Award (2019) and the Angelus Central European Literary Award for his translation of Zoltán Mihály Nagy's poetic novel “Szatański pomiot” (Satan's Spawn) (2022). He lives in Krakow and visits Budapest.

Evelin Márton, “Solea Minor”, trans. Daniel Warmuz, Warsztaty Kultury, Lublin 2025.

Free admission

The meeting will be held in Polish.

We invite you to join us for reading and discussion – in the heart of Krakow, among people who believe that books unite Central Europe.

For further information, please contact: m.bozek@mck.krakow.pl