NOSTROMO – A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE BOOK
Nostromo is set in the fictional South American republic of Costaguana, and more specifically in a port city of Sulaco. After years of military dictatorships, civil wars and poor governance, the republic is entering a period of prosperity and stability. Thanks to the nearby deposits of silver and the construction of the railway, Sulaco is becoming the wealthiest province in the country. However, where there is money, there is also power... and another military coup is on the horizon.
By setting the action in an unstable young state, riddled with corruption, shaken by upheavals and revolutions that are carried out for the sake of the people and ending with the replacing one tyrant with another, Conrad insightfully outlined the political and ideological mechanisms typical of places where corruption, ruthlessness, greed and a sense of injustice reach extreme forms.
However, the mechanisms of power are only one character in the novel. Nostromo is another character. He is a young Genoese sailor, an overseer of the workers, a pillar of the community, an honourable, proud and fearless man, a role model in the eyes of the poor and the rich. He is an impeccable and almost mythical figure.... and a thief.
What pushed a person of integrity to betray their own beliefs? What are the consequences of such a moral dilemma? Is redemption possible? Joseph Conrad again asks questions about the limits of ethics and difficult choices in extreme situations.
Maciej Swierkocki's new translation brings out everything in this prose that makes Conrad recognised as a giant of world literature.
MACIEJ ŚWIERKOCKI
Maciej Świerkocki is a translator of English-language literature, screenwriter, philosopher and a critic. He has contributed to many literary magazines in Poland, including "Literatura na świecie", "Bestseller", "Film", "Film na świecie", "Odra". He is an ordinary member of the Association of Polish Writers and the Polish Film Academy. Since 2010, Maciej Świerkocki has been a chairperson of the jury in the English-language translation competition organised as part of the "Puls Literatury" festival. He is the first Pole to sit on the jury of the prestigious Dublin IMPAC International Literary Award (2014). He was awarded the Gloria Artis Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture. He received the medal for "Merits to the City of Łódź", as well as the 2014 "Literatura na świecie" award in the prose category for his translation of the novel "Candy" by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg. In 2022, he received the City of Lodz Award and the Bernard O'Connor Award for his translation of James Joyce's Ulysses and for his book "Łódź Ulissesa". In the same year, he received the Gdynia Literary Award for his translation of Ulysses and the Literatura na świecie Award in the category Literary Studies, Translatology, Comparatistics for "Łódź Ulissesa". He is the winner of the 8th edition of the Memorial Prize of the First Rector of the University of Lodz Professor Tadeusz Kotarbiński for "Łódź Ulissesa".
Maciej Świerkocki / photo: Bartosz Kałużny (Communications and PR Centre, University of Lodz)
Edit: Bartosz Kałużny (Communications and PR Centre, University of Lodz)
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