KHOLD

  • A new brilliant novel of this exceptional author.
  • 100,000 copies of Kälte sold in Poland, months under Top 10 of the Polish bestseller list.
  • 1 million copies of his works sold in Poland altogether! 
  • His novel Der Boxer was translated into 11 languages.
  • English sample translation available.

translated by: Olaf Kühl

Epic, captivating journey through the Arctic in the Soviet Russia – from the revolution to the purges, Gulag and beyond.

A native of Upper Silesia and a veteran of World War I, Konrad Widuch is wholeheartedly committed to the revolution. After the war, together with the communist Karl Radek, he goes to Soviet Russia and fights in the 1920s for the proletarian order.
Years later, Widuch wants to leave the turmoil behind, starts a family and soon lives in seclusion in the barren landscape of the Russian-Norwegian border region.
But Stalin's bloodhounds do not grant him peace. In 1937, the year of terror and massive purges, Comrade Widuch is arrested as an 'old Bolshevik', convicted and sent to the Gulag in the far east, just outside Kamchatka. Widuch dares an incredible escape, as reckless as it is brutal. He succeeds – but now he stands alone in the vastness of the taiga, which is breathtakingly beautiful and no less hostile to life.
Widuch eventually ends up in a mysterious isolated settlement called Khold by its inhabitants. There they live according to the rhythm of the harsh polar nature, raise reindeer, hunt seals and bears, speak their own language and have never heard of Stalin.
Kälte
is a story of the disillusionment of ideas, of an individual caught in the maelstrom of the times and the moment of peace outside civilization. However, only for a brief moment …

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Lithuania - Lithuanian Writers' Union | Spain - Acantilado I Ukraine - Ranok

  • Publisher: Rowohlt Berlin
  • Translated by: Olaf Kühl
  • Release: 16.04.2024
  • ISBN: 978-3-7371-0188-2
  • 432 Pages
  • Author: Szczepan Twardoch

Please be advised that the book cover may be used in its original design only. Details and distortions are not permitted under copyright law.

KHOLD
Szczepan Twardoch KHOLD
Jacek Poremba
© Jacek Poremba
Szczepan Twardoch

Szczepan Twardoch , born in 1979, is one of the outstanding authors of contemporary literature. His breakthrough came with  Morphin  (2012). Twardoch and his German translator Olaf Kühl were honoured with the Brücke Berlin Prize in 2016 for the novel  Drach , and in 2019 Twardoch received the Samuel Bogumił Linde Prize. His most recent highly acclaimed novels include Kälte (2024),  Demut  (2022) and Der Boxer  (2018). In 2025, his latest novel  Die Nulllinie was published. Szczepan Twardoch lives with his family in Pilchowice/Silesia.