Text & Illustrations: Maria Strzelecka
8+
128 pages
Hardcover
20 x 25 cm
(Libra)
It’s a journey back in time to the 1920s, when Grandma Tekla, one of the protagonists of the previous book, was a little girl. The place is the same, but now it is covered with snow.
As we go back in time another 40 years about the first part of the book, being in the same place, we will find ourselves in the middle of a densely populated Lemko village.
Immerse yourself into descriptions of the surrounding hills covered with forest, where animals reign and winter in its most beautiful form.
As in the previous part, we dealt with the fear of the broadly understood „stranger” and tried to tame it, so the main topic of this book is slander and its consequences.
The topic is universal and nowadays it is especially dangerous due to the Internet. Gossip has a long life and it is difficult to predict its consequences and how it will affect the lives of others. It is worth remembering that nothing is ever purely black or white.
Terka in the 1920s was not born yet, but Grandma Tekla is in her late teens.
In the book, of course, there are legends, and a lot of information about the life of the village, Lemko traditions, and customs. The herbs and spices smell only inside the hut because outside everything is covered with snow and the life of the plants has stopped and waits for spring. Animals are an inseparable part of the story, both those living in the forest and those on the farm. Sometimes we look at this amazing world through their eyes.
The illustrations for the book were made in a demanding woodcut technique that fits perfectly the winter and the interwar period in the Lemko region. The form corresponds to the content.
Folk art from this rich woodland abounds in examples of this technique, and the fact that the process of cutting wood itself is difficultly suited to the winter and the harsh living conditions of people and animals during this period.
