"Trzepot skrzydeł" by Katarzyna Grochola

This book is written by a very popular Polish author. She is good in writing books, which are close to chick lits (but still there is “something more” in most them). But this book is different. The title means more less “Flap of wings” and it’s related with the ending of the book.

It’s a story of a woman. Woman who dream about love in her life, about something who will also take care about her. This need is also related with luck of acting out, her parents rather didn’t show her that they love her and that she is important for them.

At some point of her life she met a prince charming. He was full of love, taking care about her, fulfilling her wishes before she even thought about them. Shortly – an ideal. They got married and the live is just beautiful. As long as she doesn’t recognize that actually he is treating her as his property and doesn’t want to “share her” with anybody, he wants to take all the decisions etc. She lost all of her friends, she is all the time at home, just waiting for him and doing what he is asking for. And even this is not enough. This “not comfortable” situation Is slowly growing up to the hell… The first hit, the first slap, first black eye… Then “regular” beating, kicking… All the time new excuses at work – I felt down in the bathroom, I hurtled the shelf and so on. When he finally breaks her arm it seems that something get to his brain or heart and he is changing to the “short-after-we’ve-got-married” version. Happiness is blooming, she finally starts to think about having a baby, stops to take pills. But the happiness did not last for long – just because of one sentence everything started again. But this time she is trying to fight. As the result she is finishing in the hospital, with a lot of physical damage and lost child… But the women are though, so she is trying to overcome all the happenings in her life and start the new life by herself. And you want to believe she will manage it…

The story is written in the frame of kind of one long letter she is writing to someone to sum up her life. We don’t know the addressee until the very last pages of the book. Who is that?

I really like the book, it was well written story. And what’s more important – it’s dealing with one of the most common problems of women – domestic violence. Statistically the most physical and mental damage women get in the acts of domestic violence. So, it’s good to speak it loud and also to do it in the way which gives some – realistic – hope for changes and for the future. Good work!