Rudolf

This novel, set in the 1970s, tells the story of the "author" - a middle-aged Polish professor who lives abroad but who earlier survived the Nazi concentration camps - and Rudolf, an old man. In the 1930s Rudolf, the son of Germans living in Poland, rebelled against the expectations of both his parents and Polish society by leading an openly gay life in Paris. Rudolf and the author meet by chance in Brussels, and the novel unfolds as Rudolf attempts to convince the author - and himself - that his choices were good ones, that his life and the memories he has of it were worth whatever he gave up for them. Told in a highly poetic fashion through the author's stream of consciousness as well as through a triangular correspondence among Rudolf, the author, and the author's mother, Rudolf's story emerges as a tale of subversion and liberation. Echoing Gombrowicz in its exploration of transgressive desire, it will be of great interest not only to those interested in Polish literature but to readers of gay and lesbian literature as well.