Finite Formulae and Theories of Chance

One hundred years since the outbreak of the First World War, Wioletta Greg traces the seams of a family history through a hundred years of life, death, love and tragedy with passion and humour. From the lives of her grandparents in early twentieth-century Poland, through two world wars, life under Communism and the subsequent liberation, to her own experiences as a migrant living on a small island off the coast of Britain, this collection serves as both a fitting personal testament to a family that survived, and as a compelling document of a century of European history. Wioletta Greg has published several volumes of poetry, a collection of short prose poems and, most recently, a debut novel, Guguly (Wydawnictwo Czarne, 2014), which has already been hailed as the 'discovery of the year' by critics and readers alike. Marek Kazmierski's attentive and nuanced translation of this, her first book-length publication in the UK, gives readers of English a chance to experience this powerful work for the first time.

Finite Formulae and Theories of Chance was recently shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, 2015. "These poems, as translated from Polish into English by Marek Kazmierski, retain the force of first experience and, equally, a collection of history's remains. Greg's thoughts include the catastrophe of the 20th century whose marks still wobble before her eyes, and into the experience of living in post-Communist Poland. This stunning collection shows us (mostly through the eyes and memories of childhood) a world of objects transported across years. 'Tossing satin bulbs into wicker baskets,' the child poet is at ease with the earth and the hardy objects made from it. Greg grants us the privilege of seeing what she saw before she saw more." Judges Comments for the Griffin Poetry Prize; "These poems are riddled with overlapping tenses, places and intentions. New life is organised into being, memories are set in order, life on something as uncertain as an 'island' is attempted, as is the writing, 'mid-flight', rather than at rest." Karol Maliszewski "The poetess moved to the UK in 2006 and settled on the Isle of Wight: 'Take me away from this paradise, where I feel as tepid / as tea with milk. Take me, before I evaporate.' She seduces the reader with her childhood memories and the glimpses of post-Communist Poland. But it's the everyday woman's experience portrayed with great maturity and tenderness that makes this book so exceptional." A. M. Bakalar, Wasafiri

Wioletta Greg (b. 1974), poet, writer and translator from Southern Poland has been active on the Polish literary scene since her first publication in the 1990s, and despite her move to the Isle of Wight at the beginning of the new millennium, has remained so. She has published several volumes of poetry, a collection of short prose poems and, most recently, a debut novel Guguly (2014), which has already been hailed as the "discovery of the year" by critics and readers alike.