©2025 Fable Group Inc.
3.5 

Stone Upon Stone

By Wieslaw Mysliwski & Bill Johnston
Stone Upon Stone by Wieslaw Mysliwski & Bill Johnston digital book - Fable

Why read on Fable?

Discover social reading

Chat inside the ebook with emojis, comments and more

Annotate with notes, tabs, and highlights

Share or keep your notes private with our annotation features

Support the World Literacy Foundation

We donate 20% of every book sale to help children learn to read

Publisher Description

Winner of the PEN Translation Prize

A “sweeping . . . irreverent” masterpiece of postwar Polish literature that “chronicles the modernization of Poland and celebrates the persistence of desire” (The New Yorker)
 
Hailed as one of the best ever books in translation, Stone Upon Stone is Wieslaw Mysliwski’s grand epic in the rural tradition—a profound and irreverent stream of memory cutting through the rich and varied terrain of one man’s connection to the land, to his family and community, to women, to tradition, to God, to death, and to what it means to be alive. Wise and impetuous, plainspoken and compassionate, Szymek recalls his youth in their village, his time as a guerrilla soldier, as a wedding official, barber, policeman, lover, drinker, and caretaker for his invalid brother.
 
Filled with interwoven stories and voices, by turns hilarious and moving, Szymek’s narrative exudes the profound wisdom of one who has suffered, yet who loves life to the very core.

3 Reviews

3.5
“Another reviewer said that this book was like having a conversation with an elderly relative that talks about his/her youth without logical timeline, with repetitions, exxagerations and sometimes hard to follow. I agree but unlike the other reviewer, I liked it for it. There is no plot. Long chapters deal with themes of rural life and the characters, exploring a Poland that was once Russian, then Poland, then German occupied and then Poland again. At times funny, often heartbreaking, ridiculous, joyous, sad and everything in between.”

About Wieslaw Mysliwski

Wieslaw Mysliwski is the only writer to have twice received the Nike Prize, Poland's most prestigious literary award: in 1997 for his novel Horizon and again in 2007 for A Treatise on Shelling Beans. He worked as an editor at the People's Publishing Cooperative and at the magazines Regiony and Sycyna. In addition to the Nike Prize, Wieslaw Mysliwski has received the Stanislaw Pietak Prize, The Reymont Prize, and The Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation Award. Stone Upon Stone is widely regarded as his crowning achievement. Bill Johnston is the Chair of the Comparative Literature Department at Indiana University. His translations include Wieslaw Mysliwski's Stone Upon Stone, and Magdalens Tulli's Dreams and Stones, Moving Parts, Flaw and In Red. His 2008 translation of Tadeusz Rózewicz's new poems won the inaugural Found in Translation Prize and was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Poetry Award.

Start a Book Club

Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!

FAQ

Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?

Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?

How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?

Do you sell physical books too?

Are book clubs free to join on Fable?

How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?

Error Icon
Save to a list
0
/
30
0
/
100
Private List
Private lists are not visible to other Fable users on your public profile.
Notification Icon
Fable uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB