Paperback: Nine, by Andrzej Stasiuk

Stasiuk is one of Poland's best-known writers, and his award-winning novel Nine (translated by Bill Johnston) follows the progress of Pawel, a paranoiac businessman with three days to repay a massive debt to underworld gangsters. Patrolling the snowy streets of post-Communist Warsaw, Stasiuk conjures up a hyped-up city. More poetic than hardboiled, the thriller proves as confusing – and classy – as a Hollywood heist.

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