Bosorky Szpila Agnieszka (2026)

This Czech-language novel by Polish writer Agnieszka Szpila may strike many readers as a revelation. Her openness, anger and characteristic audacity can be disconcerting, yet the novels place among the twenty books nominated for the prestigious NIKE literary award in 2022 shows that it captured the attention of Polish critics and many Polish readers. Two stories run through the book, one set in the present and the other in the Middle Ages. Both feature striking female characters: Anna ibnerov, the chief executive of a major company, and Mathilde Spalt, known as Zemit, who spreads the teachings of the Old Maid. The novel is a feminist manifesto calling for radical change and a new sexuality. Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk has described it as a book-torpedo.