Reykjavík Grapevine - apr. 2022, Síða 26

Ewa Marcinek is a Polish-born
Icelander and a writer. Her new book
has been receiving a lot of attention
in Icelandic cultural circles, and for a
good reason.
The first thing that struck me
when reading 'Ísland Pólera!',
(which could be translated as
'Polishing Iceland'), is not that the
author is a Polish-born Icelander,
but how different the book is to
traditional Icelandic voices, while
still approaching a very Icelan-
dic reality. This, of course, is no
coincidence. The writer, Ewa
Marcinek was born in Poland but
moved to Iceland in the summer
of 2013—five years after the
complete failure of the Icelandic
banking system. That same year
she was attacked brutally in her
hometown, an experience she goes
through in her debut novel.
Broken heart lead to
Iceland
“I lived in Wroclaw and was in a
relationship for nine years,” she
says. Life took a U-turn one day
when she and her boyfriend broke
up. It also broke up the comfort-
able pattern of her life, and it was
time to seek out something new.
At least something different.
“I came to Iceland in the
summer of 2013 for work. I was
running a cultural project in
collaboration with Bíó Pardís. And
I loved being here. I spent three
months in Iceland and although
I wanted to stay, I also needed to
return back home,” Ewa explains.
Unexpected revelation
When she went back home to
Poland she experienced horrific
trauma.
“I was attacked close to my
home and, after that, I decided to
move to Iceland,”"Ewa said,
confirming the autobiographical
nature of her book.
There is not much in the
description of the novel that indi-
cates that it's autobiographical,
although it's very clear that Ewa
had based it on her own experi-
ences. That alone is, of course, not
unusual. The story itself is poetic
yet, in some respects, quite a ruth-
less journey into the life of a Polish
immigrant in Iceland, with a terri-
ble trauma in her not too distant
past.
That changes this reader's view
of the story. Ewa doesn’t shy away
from her horrible experience in
the book, which is described in
a shockingly beautiful way. It’s a
piercing experience for the reader.
Ewa says that she was one
survivor of four women that the
man attacked, and she managed
to fight and escape, unlike other
women who crossed paths with
him.
The guilt
“He was arrested while I was still
in Poland and I had to identify him
from a lineup,” she recalls. The
trials were held after she left the
country to move to Iceland. She
didn’t want to go back for the trial.
The reason was guilt.
“I felt guilty. I didn’t report the
attack straight away to the police,
so he escaped,” she says. “I couldn’t
bear to return and face the victims
that he attacked afterwards.”
Asked if it was hard to revisit
these moments for her book, Ewa
answers: “At first I was discon-
nected, but when I used this
experience in my play, Polishing
Iceland, it hit me hard. Seeing it on
stage was very hard.”
Ewa says that the attack
convinced her to move to Iceland.
“Iceland felt very safe for women,
and I feel very safe here,” she says.
Casual xenophobia…
and not so casual
xenophobia
But the novel tackles another
obstacle every immigrant in
Iceland knows all too well — and
one Icelanders would be wiser to
recognise by reading Ewa’s book:
xenophobia. Ewa approaches this
subject with a masterful and warm
mind, showing the reader that
xenophobia is complicated, but
always idiotic. She would probably
not describe it using such a harsh
word, given her delicate writing
style.
“I was a bit surprised how
Icelanders categorise Polish
people. They had this concept
about the Polish people living in
Brei!holt [perhaps not the fanci-
est neighbourhood in Reykjavík].
The idea is about the lonely Polish
worker that works every day and
drinks a lot in the evening,” she
explains.
It was pretty obvious that Ewa
did not fit into these xenopho-
EXPLORE
UNSEEN
ICELAND
ON THE ULTIMATE
FLYING RIDE Creatin! New Pockets
Ewa Marcinek’s debut book confronts trauma and immi!ration in
Iceland
Words: Valur Grettisson Photos: Patrik Ontkovic
Books