Rather than heralding midsummer, White Nights/Białe noce feels looming and Novemberish. Immersed in darkness and silence (ciemno wszędzie, głucho wszędzie), there’s no way of knowing what’s going to happen next. Very likely, another death…
If you love Tokarczuk and want to get back to a Polish mountain village full of odd characters to whom decidedly odd things happen, try White Nights. While the plot is all but cheerful, the language is beautiful. If you want a happy ending, don’t read this. But if you want to see where dreaming and despair can take you, do read it.
This is Ursula Honek’s first novel, and it inspired me to track down some of her poetry. Who first said that poetry is the most concentrated written artform, novellas are a little more diluted, and well, novels are easy compared to that? Moving from poetry to prose, Honek sustains that intensity. Like a lot of Polish short story collections, White Nights weaves the tales together into a larger whole. Each brings in the perspective of a different person in the same village. Like the coloured threads on the cover, the stories are entangled.
This is also the publisher’s first novel. MTO Press is a UK-based publisher of English translations written by women and non-binary authors and translators. As it’s a social enterprise, you won’t find White Nights in the big book outlets. You can only get Kate Webster’s English translation from the MTO press website.
PS Since writing this review, I learned that White Nights is now longlisted for the International Booker Prize. Huge congratulations to Kate Webster and Ursula Honek. I hope you win!
Translator, editor, writer, reader
found in translation 
Ooo! This sounds right up my alley. I’m always a suck for lyric prose written by a poet. Lovely review, Kate. Thank you!
We are super lucky to have Kate Webster in the ITI Polish Network and read this in our book club. I hope you like it!