Absolute Sunset (29 page)

At 15% concentration, methane starts to burn. It reaches a temperature of over 2000 degrees Celsius. Even when you are far away from the fire, you feel the air burning your lungs—this is what miners say.

Today, miners use tools that measure methane concentration and give a warning before it reaches dangerous levels. Earlier, they used canaries—when the birds appeared ill, it was a sign of rising methane concentration. This is what inspired me in chapter 24 to employ a talking bird to warn Hanka (see below).

As some of my family members work or have worked in mines, any tragedy in a mine is very painful for me.

Later in this chapter there is a plane crash. Here in Poland these are pretty frequent, especially those involving small planes, and also accidents at air shows. Last year a puddle-jumper crashed right into my friend’s garden (we have a small airport here, in the city, used only for training purposes—right in the middle of my town). Fortunately everyone was inside at the time.

Small planes are not properly controlled here, which results in numerous accidents. I don’t know if this is due to lack of skill or due to technical reasons. I think the most deadly was the accident at Okęcie in Warsaw, when 77 people died.

In this chapter I refer to carbon monoxide poisoning. This happens very often in the winter in Poland, as many houses have outdated gas water-heaters. Every year people die while taking a bath or sleeping.

(Carbon monoxide is deadly because it bonds with hemoglobin and causes oxygen to not be transported from the lungs to the rest of the body. The tissues are starved of oxygen, and the circulatory and nervous system fail.)

This chapter is also a tribute to my friend, who, together with her family and a dog, was poisoned by carbon monoxide. She managed to run away from the flat and all the family eventually recovered. (Sadly, if the damage to the body is too severe, some people die even after escaping.)

In this chapter we see a doctor in Hanka’s dream who conducts surgeries, but all of his patients die. Later it turns out he was drunk. Well, this happens often in Poland. Doctors work while drunk—and they haven’t had just one beer or a glass of wine—they are sloshed. And then they kill people, including babies in maternity wards.

I am far from judging them—alcoholism is an awful sickness—but I decided to write about it. Fortunately, more and more patients are deciding to call the police instead of simply accepting the fact the doctor is under the influence of alcohol. In Poland, social acceptance of being drunk is decreasing, and awareness that alcoholism is a sickness and needs to be treated is rising.

Here I refer to a real event from 2011—a railway accident in the village of Baby. Two people died, 81 were injured. I picked the derailment in Baby because I was personally involved with the accident—my father was on this train. And he called my mother from inside the train—you have read about this conversation in the book. He managed to escape and survive. We brought him home; when he undressed, he still had glass in his trousers.

Here I refer to the mass shooting at the Batman movie premiere in Aurora, Colorado in 2012, when 12 people were killed

Here I’m referring to Zdzisław Marchwicki, a famous predator from Katowice. He killed 14 woman and attempted to kill another 6. He was caught, sentenced to death, and killed. (The death penalty was still in force then; it has been abolished now. And I agree with this—I am against the death penalty, although here, in Poland, many people claim it should be brought back. I am against it, since I think everyone has the potential to understand his or her mistakes and change. But this is a very touchy issue here.)

Marchwicki was not the only serial killer in our history. Poland has been home to at least 20 of them. I think I will not give any wider comment on this, out of respect for the victims and mercy for the killers.

I refer here to another rail crash, in Szczekociny in 2011, a few months after the tragedy in Baby. Sixteen people died.

Finally, in this chapter I refer to the abuse of elderly people in care centers. This has happened several times in Poland (2007, 2014, 2015). The patients lacked food and water; they were physically abused. This has also happened in orphanages, where the kids were beaten or confined.

What bothers me so much is the fact that the most defenceless people are the victims. They are so easy to hurt... And it takes only a few actions to become a torturer—what makes the facts of these events so striking is that the guilty parties claim they had to commit violent acts to make the victims behave.

Now, for my English-speaking readers, I would also like to explain several other references that might be confusing for those who have never lived in Poland.

Here Hanka mentions
bebok
. This is a mythical creature that, in local lore, is believed to substitute an evil baby for a good one, among other tricks.

Later, “losing your ass” is a local expression used to describe a person who demands too much. It’s similar to the expression “to lose one’s mind.”

Jura is a region in Poland—the one that I come from, by the way.

In this chapter you learn the name of the complex where Hanka and her family lives—
Tysiąclecie
. This word means
Millenium
. It’s the name of a series of housing estates that were built under communism on the thousandth anniversary of the founding of Poland (which was celebrated in 1966).

I was raised in one of those
Tysiąclecie
complexes. I was lucky—I lived in a four-storey block of flats, on the first floor. My schoolmates lived in ten- or twelve-storey buildings. My grandma in Opole, on the fourth floor of a fifteen-storey building. My aunt in Bytom, on the seventh floor out of ten. My uncle in Czestochowa, on the fourth out of six, quite a luxurious place.

I know those complexes pretty well, love them and detest them at the same time, due to the lack of space and crowds of people circulating around and failing to mind their own business, but disappearing when you really need them.
Tysiąclecie
is a specific place, like a small village, where everyone knew everything about everybody else, but would never interfere in your personal matters since this would be impolite.

A bit further on, Janusz mentions that he was working in the
Śląska
mine.
Śląska
means simply
Silesian
, and refers to the region of Silesia, where he and his family live.

Later on, Janusz mentions the miners’ shops. Under the communist regime in Poland, certain stores were only open to miners, while ordinary people suffered from a lack of even basic food, clothes, and household items. Many miners made an extra income by selling goods at a profit to the people who weren’t allowed in the special shops.

Here Sabina mentally rebukes her neighbors with the phrase “a stick in their eye!”. This expression means you won’t put up with someone looking down on you, that you don’t care what he or she thinks.

Later, the plumber knocks on his forehead. In Poland this gesture shows that you think someone has lost their mind, or has an empty skull with no brain inside.

The first of May is Labour Day in Poland. It was a very important celebration under communism and remains so today.

Here you might have noticed the doctors and nurses are wearing clogs. In Poland all doctors and nurses wear wooden clogs. The reason? I have no idea, really.

After Bartek is born he receives a 10-point score on the Apgar scale. The Apgar scale summarizes the state of a newborn’s health, and ten is a perfect score, so Bartek is born a healthy baby.

Here Janusz says that he is spending more and more time at work, “guarding his stool”. This expression indicates that someone is protecting their position at work, for fear of losing their job.

Here Sabina mentions Ich Troje. This is a very popular Polish pop group.

Later, Sabina behaves like a “pure-bred Polish Mother”. This expression is used to describe a caring and responsible (and sometimes even overprotective) mother.

Here we learn that Janusz hasn’t posted any announcements about the funeral. In Poland, it’s common to display an invitation to a funeral in public: on the front door, on telephone poles, in churches, and so on, so Janusz’ behaviour is unusual.

“Use the tip of your tongue as a guide” is a Polish saying.

Here Janusz complains about doctors and calls them wastrels who are ruining the mining industry. Public health services providers and miners are the two largest groups who go on strike in Poland. Both groups are also quite wealthy, but they compete for public money.

L4 is the official form for a medical work exemption in Poland.

In the last paragraph, Hanka’s boss speaks to her in a very impolite way. It’s illegal to talk to employees this way in Poland, but it happens anyway.

Here you need to know something about our history: during the communist period, Polish citizens weren’t allowed to travel abroad, so they simply fled across the border to get out of the Eastern Bloc. They then travelled further, often to the U.S.A. or Canada. This had to be done in secret. If officials found out, the people would be imprisoned, or even sentenced to death, like spies.

Later Janusz refers to himself as a “naked ass”. This is an impolite local expression for someone who’s poor.

For dinner, the family is eating
bigos
. This is a common Polish dish made by stewing sauerkraut and mushrooms.

Here the guests are eating
babka
. This is a spongy, brioche-like yeast cake made mainly in Central and Eastern Europe.

Paweł’s surname is Niewiara. This is an untranslatable word-play; “Niewiara” can mean “a person with no faith.” This is why the raven calls him “a doubter.”

Here Hanka mentions Adam Mickiewicz, a famous Polish poet.

Załęże is a district of Katowice.

Ochaby is a famous Polish stable near Katowice, now closed.

Polish history is very chequered, and in
Absolute Sunset
you are looking at a very short period of time through a peephole, without the context we, Poles, know from early childhood.

Also, our culture, and especially the region of Silesia, has been influenced by foreign cultures. The local dialect is a mixture of Polish and German, and if often seen as a separate language. The local customs and beliefs reflect the clash between these two culturally distant countries. And so became Silesia, whose inhabitants claim they are neither Polish nor German.

All of this might be a bit confusing for my English-speaking readers. I hope the above explanations help you to understand the book and maybe encourage you to visit my country.

As an independent author, word-of-mouth is essential to my career. You, dear reader—not a radio ad, celebrity endorsement, or newspaper review—
you
will decide whether other people read
Absolute Sunset
. You will decide who gets to meet Hanka, Janusz, Sabina... and the raven.

If you liked this book and you want to help, here are some ways to spread the word:

• Write a review of
  Absolute Sunset
  on Amazon, Goodreads, Kobo, or your own blog.
  
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  Absolute Sunset
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  Absolute Sunset
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For anything you do to help my work reach new readers, I’m grateful. It truly makes all the difference.

I was born and raised in the south of Poland, but a big part of my family lives in the US and Canada. As a child, I always assumed that my English-speaking uncles and aunts must feel terribly lost in Poland, since speaking Polish is something of a superpower. So, I resolved early on to master English—the first word I learned was “teddy bear”.

I began my writing career in 2012, after leaving the IT industry. Several of my books were published in Polish, and were all successful and well-received. In 2015, I made the decision to switch to self-publishing and start my international career. This was a tough decision, but I assumed that since I can say much more now in English than just “teddy bear”, I might succeed.

My first book published in English was
Absolute Sunset
. I still wonder how I managed to complete this project—I think it was a matter of meeting the right people at the right time. I have always been lucky to meet people who are really committed to their work. When I saw my book on Amazon for the first time, I took a selfie with my computer screen in the background. I look at it almost every day. Working on
Absolute Sunset
was a lot of fun, so I decided to go ahead with translating and publishing all of my books in English.