Lala

Travel Guide

Oliwa suburb, Gdansk

Gdansk, a lot of Lala is set in Oliwa, the beautiful suburb to the north of the city, where Jacek’s grandmother Lala lived for decades and where Jacek grew up. Oliwa is picturesque, with a marker square and the old abbey, which has a very pretty park. Kielce in Jacek’s work is from memory – Lala grew up in and near Kielce, at her grandparents’ estate at a place called Lisow, but if you read the book you’ll know that  when Jacek tried to find the place he found nothing but a pile of rubble and one chimney stack.

This is a ghost of a place, a faded photograph and fingerprints on an abandoned handrail ofhistory – but a memory of one man is the story of another and the history of so many more…