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Anna Wybraniec

@annaintobooks

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💖 books & illustration,
📚 currently reading: plenty
🗺 Polish / Silesian living in London, E17
🏃‍♀️ Running for Shelter

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August & September wrap up is finally here!
This time it wasn’t about the booker, so I could focus on translated lit new releases and some books from my physical TBR.
12 books read (based on my failing memory)
Please swipe for a mini summary on selected books (some of the others are already captured in my feed)

#readingwrapup #monthlybookwrapup #podsumowaniemiesiąca by @annaintobooks

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13 days ago

The Chronology of Water, Lydia Yuknavitch.
🎧 read by the author

One of the best audiobooks I experienced this year.
It’s a heavy matter non-fiction about survival, which takes long and convoluted path. At the same time it carries powerful feminist message.
I heard so much about this book. Still, I was surprised how good the writing was.
Have you read it?
Did you watch the movie? (I’m not sure if it’s not too traumatic for me - I can stomach so much more in books than in films. When I watch people’s emotions on screen, my natural defence mechanisms are mostly dismantled). by @annaintobooks

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20 days ago

Range by Dorthe Nors, tr. from Danish by Caroline Waight

When @pushkin_press told me they are having a new novel, which follows an astrophysicist searching for her place among her neighbours and in the universe I knew it was something I need to read!

The book in a unique, sensitive way switches from the unimaginable vastness of outer space to over-the-fence affairs. The book main character - Gunn Haven, finds herself in a not very clear to a reader crisis which she tries to heal coming back to a rural village of her childhood. Her academic position is both feared and dismissed by her neighbours.
I loved the book for its atmosphere - night sky and cups of tea.
A reader can easily fell in love with Gunn’s mind, when she talks about black holes and her students, but also when she applies physicists’ way of thinking trying to navigate social rules. It made me chuckle, when Gunn spent more time analysing what to do with an apple pie dish brought by her neighbour, then analysing satellite signals for a university project. Despite of its humour, it is not a simple cosy tale of a friendly rural neighbourhood (the you-just-need-to-be-patient-to-get-into-people’s-hearts kind). Some characters succeed in breaking this convention and it makes the read even more exciting.

The writing style is so unique - this is the book which doesn’t forgive a reader for being inattentive. One needs to find a peaceful moment to enjoy it fully, as ideas and themes keep coming back in different contexts. The story slowly unravels in front of a patient reader.

Please swipe to see the final book cover -perfectly matching the book’s atmosphere.

Dorthe Nors lives in West Jutland and it gave me a kind of satisfaction that I finished the book on a Norfolk beach, looking through the North Sea in a direction of the author’s home.
A strong contender for 2027 International Booker Prize I would say.
And yes - I need more Dorthe Nors’ writing in my life.

#arc #dorthenors #womenintranslation #gifted by @annaintobooks

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23 days ago

The Fallen Trees Are Also the Forest by Alejandra Kamiya, tr. Daniel Hahn

The best one-author short stories collection I read this year? Probably!
This is a union I’ve been waiting for: Alejandra Kamiya combines in her works everything I love about female writers from Argentina and Japan. This is basically my two favorites world directions for translated fiction and she’s got it covered!
The mood is everything in this book. I cared for Kamiya’s characters, their small wins and big losses, their micro and macro struggles, their feelings towards family and friends.
There are shadows and different from those in Enriquez’s and Schweblin’s prose, but equally worth discovering.

Read for #womenintranslationmonth

Thank you @pushkin_press for my e-copy via #netgalley 🖤

#shortstoriescollection #alejandrakamiya by @annaintobooks

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25 days ago

Have you celebrated Women in Translation month? I’m yet to post about my most current reads, but today I’m in mood to talk about food.
Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori makes a perfect recommendation for #WITmonth and beyond. Those 12 stories are pretty wild, challenging social norms and testing readers readiness to follow alternative scenarios. Murata keeps asking “what if”, being constantly curious about what makes a norm - how does that “mutual agreement” of what is acceptable and what is tabu really works?
She challenges what we eat, how we easily accept using products of animal origins but not of human origin. I imagine that Murata had a lot of fun developing those stories and turning upside down arguments like “it’s been always like that” or “everyone does it”.
As a pescatarian, I faced a big challenge to stomach some of the stories (I don’t recommend walking past kebab restaurant, when listening a story about eating human flesh). At the same time I know that some of my friends found sea food quite repulsive. On the next 3 slides I compiled my recent foody adventures with 3 selective eaters: an asian fusion restaurant (the biggest challenge for my little companions was a tempura sweet potato instead of french fries), a jelly rabbit (5yo wasn’t a big fan of it) and East London pie & mash (I didn’t know that the green sauce was called liquor and that it is made from water used to boil eels! Eels were considered a true delicacy in Poland. Whereas my daughter considers them as something snaky, not as edible as “normal” fish are.).

#womenintranslation #japaneseliterature #sayakamurata by @annaintobooks

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2 months ago

Women In Translation Month celebration - today it’s Czech author Petra Hůlová 🇨🇿 and her translator Alex Zucker.

The Long Version is being released on 08/09/2026 from World Editions @worldedbooks
I read an early ebook copy from #netgalley .
I have been wanting to read Hůlová for some time now. Her previous books were recommended to me as powerful, feminist and intense. The Long Version (Nejvyšší karta) was more on a slow, intellectual side.
It’s a take on different approaches to feminism.
Could a feminist author in her 50s be respected and understood by her teenage daughter, who read her early diaries?
Can one consider events happening 20 years ago, in transformation times (now felt like a different universe really) as a MeToo case? Especially if the guy involved in it was an intellectual 🏆and an anti communist hero 🏅?
What about the author’s current love life choices? Do they need to be consistent with her feminist writing?

It all sounds really exciting, but it’s diluted by details about publishing industry, book promotions, reading events, book tours etc.

I am intrigued enough to explore Hůlová’s back list. This time in Polish translation, which should be closer to original.

#petrahulova #thelongversion #WITmonth #womenintranslationmonth by @annaintobooks

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2 months ago

Maya Angelou, Gather Together In My Name - the second book in Angelou’s series of seven autobiographies - now I’m sure I want to read them all!

Angelou’s energy, humour and talent to observe and describe reality in unreal. I’m totally hooked by her storytelling style. This book describes young Angelou from 17 to 19 yo, moving between Arkansas and California, sampling what she thinks is adult life and repeatedly falling into traps that life (or more precisely male predators) set for her. Exciting audiobook experience - narrated by Uzo Aduba.

Background photo - V&A East Museum (if you’re around you might want to check out their The Music is Black: A British Story exhibition). The Black woman sculpture titled A Place Beyond is ) by Thomas J Price.

#mayaangelou #blackfemaleauthors #nonfictionreads #gathertogetherinmyname by @annaintobooks

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2 months ago

I’m somewhere between July and August, still in summer mode.
July meant more running, some decent readings, superb food, art & architecture. and a sealsaw 🦭

Books read:
early start to #womenintranslationmonth :

🇨🇿Petra Hůlová, The Long Version, tr. Alex Zucker

🇸🇪Linea Maria Ernst, Prawie wieczór, wciąż jasno, tr. Edyta Stępkowska

🇧🇷Where We Stand, Dzjamila Ribeiro, tr. Padma Viswanathan

🇯🇵 Life Ceremony, Sayaka Murata, tr. Ginny Tapley Takemori

more Japanese translated lit:
🇯🇵Traveling Practice, Yusuke Norishiro, tr. Takami Nieda

Polish & Silesian lit by women:

🇵🇱Joanna Bator, Ciemno, prawie noc
[Upper Silesia flag] Monika Kassner, „Pōnboczkowi świyczka
[Upper Silesia flag] Bożena Donnerstag, Jak Baba z Babom…

Running in km: 53.5

#witmonth #julywrapup #podsumowaniemiesiąca by @annaintobooks

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2 months ago

My summer reads:
Just before leaving for a long awaited campsite in Netherlands, I finished two audiobooks:
Dark, Almost Night by Joanna Bator &
Almost Evening, Still Bright by Linea Maja Ernst
(this is the title in Polish translation, in English edition it doesn’t match the other book at all, having been published as “Waist Deep”).
Linea Maja Ernst’s book is a perfect millennial summer read. Bator’s novel is an opposite - a dark crime story, which is an opportunity for a social commentary, it is almost gothic horror style with an unique Polish twist. This book got a prestigious Polish literary prize (Nike Literary Award) in 2012 and I still hope that it could be rediscovered for English readers one day 🤞

I recently also finished Petra Hůlová new book “The Long Version” and thought I would take her debut novel “All This Belongs To Me”, set in Mongolia on holidays. I didn’t make a good progress though, as there are seals to watch, Vermeers and Rembrandts to admire and runs to be run.

How are your holidays going? Any special summer reads so far? by @annaintobooks

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3 months ago

June wrap up 🐌

The World Cup is taking my IG posting energy from me, but today I’m reemerging for a moment.

Books read in June:

🇭🇺 🎠Lázár. Nelio Biedermann, tr. Danuta Fryzowska

🇨🇿 ⛏️Krzywy kościół, Karin Lednicka, tr. Joanna Goszczyńska

🇦🇫 🏨 The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan, Lyse Doucet

🇧🇪 👎 Orlanda, Jacqueline Harpman, tł. Katarzyna Marczewska

🇬🇧🩸 freebleeding, Wendy Allen & Charley Barnes

🇬🇧🏳️‍⚧️♿️ Plain Air: An Apology in Transit, Cat Chong

🏆Book of the month - Krzywy kościół, closely followed by freebleeding.

🏃‍♀️Running - 50 km done in June.
I started my half marathon training and fundraising for @sheltercharity - more in highlights and link in bio 🏃‍♀️

#junewrapup #podsumowaniemiesiąca by @annaintobooks

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3 months ago

I used to soak my children’s books in tears. Literally, I remember watching my tears dropping and being absorbed by paperback editions of Christian Andersen stories (The Fir Tree and The Little Match Girl). But my truest nemesis was “The Dog who Travelled by Train” by Polish author Roman Pisarski. I see it was recently made into a movie and is available to watch with English subtitles (if you want to soak your sofa in tears, give it a go).

I can’t remember exactly when, but at some point I decided that the feeling of all those tears dropping is just too painful and since then I keep my eyes dry. Though, I still am a very emotional reader, naturally drawn to heartbreaking, nostalgic or dark stories. When someone wants me to recommend them a cheerful book, I could barely find any on my shelves.

The background photo is ancient, taken not long after the time when I was listening to The Cure on my walkman.
This is such a joy that now my tween daughter shares love for The Cure with me. Even bigger joy: she introduced me to Olivia Rodrigo and we were both ecstatic watching Robert Smith at Rodrigo’s Glastonbury concert.

Olivia Rodrigo’s new album is impressive, I admire its execution and its mood. We’ll be listening to it A LOT during our holiday car trip across Europe.

#oliviarodrigo #sadbooks by @annaintobooks

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4 months ago

Joe Sacco, The Once and Future Riot.

“Dear reader, do you believe in The People?

Do you applaud the impulse that brings The People together to express a grievance or take a stand?

And what if The People are angry?”

Sacco is an outstanding comic reporter, but also a very demanding for his readers. As you could see from the next slide, from the very first page a reader is plunged into the thick of things.
In this particular case, this is a trip to the Indian state of Utar Pradesh to examine the events of the 2013 riots.
Things are complicated: Sacco, along with an Indian guide, translator, and part-time journalist Piyush, speaks with rioters, officials in local villages, religious guides, victims in temporary camps, and political experts.
Both sides—the Hindu Jets and the Muslims of Utar Pradesh—are in a state of denial about the incidents: both sides exaggerate the number of “their” victims, denying provocations by shouting hateful slogans, stone-throwing, and burning down houses. The facts are verified by victims’ testimonies, but no justice is served.
It’s difficult to pinpoint the source of this escalation. The Jets blame Muslims, Muslims blame the Jets, everyone blames the police, politicians, and the media. Sacco also wonders to what extent the conflict stems not so much from religion but from class differences.

Sacco also shows that, as is often the case in such conflicts, women’s bodies become a battlefield.
It is the female characters that will stick in my mind the most, although there is a significant dominance of talking male heads here.

The book compliments well with Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me, an author and activist who is also concerned in growing anti Muslim politics in India.

Thank you @vintagebooks for my review copy.

#joesacco #theonceandfutureriot #vintageinfluencer by @annaintobooks

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4 months ago