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It’s not an easy conversation to have
For the past three years, Sopot by the Book has had its permanent home in the Juncke villa at 3 Goyki Street in Sopot. During the renovation of the villa, the restorers took great care to carry out a series of uncoverings with the aim of reaching successive layers of paint and plaster, and establishing the chronology of the creation of polychromes, wooden floors or beautiful wall tiles. This peculiar palimpsest allowed us to get closer to the first inhabitants of the house and reminded us of the city's German history ( in the interwar period, Poles constituted 8% of the population in Sopot), before newcomers from all over Poland were attracted to the city after the war. The Juncke villa is the very essence of what we consider to be a shared Polish-German heritage.
It is no secret that this year's 12th edition of the Sopot by the Book festival has become a real challenge to us. How to address the difficult relations between Poles and Germans, marked by the cruelty of World War II? How to avoid pathos or regret, how to finally ‘read’ contemporary Germany? When more and more hate-filled messages from Polish politicians wanting war reparations began to appear in Polish public space, we realised that a German edition was needed to rise above it and talk in peace.
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Last year, while analysing the situation of the Polish publishing market, we came to two conclusions. Firstly, relatively few books by German authors are published in Poland. Secondly, an important trend has emerged in Polish literature towards publications dealing with common German-Polish history and describing the experiences of the inhabitants of Upper and Lower Silesia, Warmia and Masuria, or West Pomerania. It is thanks to literature that we are beginning to understand better what being ‘next door’ was all about, how ‘neighbourliness’ was born and how much there is to discuss.
We warmly welcome you to the German edition of the Sopot by the Book festival. Let's get together to talk about more than just Polish issues in peace.
Joanna Cichocka-Gula Festival Director
