Purity

Synopsis

In this powerful collection of stories, Andrzej Tichý writes about people living on the edges of contemporary society—those navigating addiction, poverty, violence, precarious work, and isolation. A man suffers a breakdown on a bus, a fugitive finds unexpected meaning in colour, a thief discovers solace in books, and cleaners quietly continue their work. Each story offers a fragment of modern life, revealing moments of tenderness, despair, and resilience with remarkable emotional intensity.

A finalist for the 2021 Nordic Council Literature Prize, Purity blends social realism with lyrical experimentation, shifting between voices and perspectives to create a vivid portrait of lives too often overlooked. Translated by the award-winning Nichola Smalley, these stories are gritty, compassionate, and formally daring, confirming Tichý as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Scandinavian literature.

About the Author

Andrzej Tichý was born in Prague to a Polish mother and a Czech father and has lived in Sweden since 1981. He is the author of several acclaimed novels and story collections, including Wretchedness, which was longlisted for the International Booker Prize and won the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize in English. Purity, translated by Nichola Smalley, was shortlisted for the Nordic Council Literature Prize and further established Tichý's reputation for formally innovative fiction that explores class, marginalization, and contemporary urban life.

Publisher

And Other Stories

Publication Date

June 4, 2024

Format

Paperback

Pages

124

Subjects

Short Stories · Fiction in Translation · Swedish Literature · Literary Fiction · Contemporary Fiction

ISBN

9781913505981