Chłopki Opowieść o naszych babkach

The author of Servants of Everything returns to the subject of rural women, but this time it is a story from behind the door of a peasant cottage. While Maryśka and Kaśka go to the cities to serve in lords' houses, their sisters and mothers stay in the villages: housewives working from dawn to dusk, farm maids, mamas, girls working in richer households. Dreaming of their own bed, shoes, school and becoming a mistress. Praying for a dowry so as not to "marry their grandfather" and be given away for a morgue. Dividing matches into fours to feed the family. Often illiterate, because "grandmothers don't need school". Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Joanna Kuciel-Frydryszak gives rural women a voice to talk about their lives: their daily drudgery, fears and dreams. This powerful, deeply touching read shows the strength of the women, their boundless devotion to their families, but also their desire for change and their uneven struggle to fend for themselves in a patriarchal society. "Joanna Kuciel-Frydryszak tells the truth. She describes the history of rural poverty and hunger of our grandmothers and tears our hearts apart. A shocking story of Polish women. My grandmother was one of them". IZABELA KUNA "This book should be compulsory reading. No one will understand contemporary Poland, the social tensions and the history of their own family without understanding what Joanna Kuciel-Frydryszak has described in Chłopki. That mixture of injustice from the cradle and heroism to the grave. A shocking picture of the inhuman ordeal of everyday life, the drudgery, poverty and humiliation of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers. On the clock of history, after all, it was yesterday, which is why there are so many demons and rebellion in us..." JOANNA KOS-KRAUZE "Individuals whose lives have been the backdrop to stories commonly regarded as more important finally come to the fore. A wonderful and moving book." KACPER POBŁOCKI Professor at the University of Warsaw, author of Chamstwo JOANNA KUCIEL-FRYDRYSZAK journalist, graduate of Polish Studies at the University of Wrocław. Author of the biography Słonimski. Heretic on the pulpit, nominated in the most important competitions for the Historical Book of the Year (K. Moczarski and O. Halecki), the acclaimed biography of Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna Iłła (Marginesy 2017), nominated for the Józef Łukaszewicz Award, and the bestselling book Służące do wszystkiego (Marginesy 2018), which made it to the list of the ten most important books of 2018 of the bimonthly "Książki. Magazyn do Czytania' and was nominated for the History Award of 'Polityka' and the T. Torańska Award of 'Newsweek'. Her latest book is Chłopki. Opowieść o naszych babkach (Marginesy 2023).