WARSAW: Poland’s first ever writer to win the Man Booker International Prize said on Wednesday she is happy that her book has been given a new life on an international scale and that it is attracting attention to Poland’s authors.

Olga Tokarczuk won the prize on Tuesday with the English translation of her novel Flights, which charts multiple journeys in time, space and human anatomy.

“I am really lucky that a book I wrote more than 10 years ago is given a new lease on life in a different culture and different language zone and is still seen as relating to the current times,” Tokarczuk said on Poland’s TVN24. “Polish literature can be interesting to the world. I’m happy to be the trailblazer,” she said.

The 56-year-old author is among Poland’s top writers. Her liberal views and perspectives on Polish history especially on the Holocaust, including her criticism of Polish antisemitism have clashed with those of the ruling conservative party. She has received death threats in the past.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2018