A poetic journey that is sincere and emotionally piercing.
—- The Reykjavík Grapevine

Both warm and funny, and sharply critical, too.”
— Kiljan

Straightforward, humorous, and sincere.”
— Reykjavík UNESCO City of Literature


Ós Pressan, a multilingual publishing house, presents Polishing Iceland by Ewa Marcinek. A bittersweet collection of stories, poems, and anecdotes about immigrant life in Iceland.

After a painful divorce and a sexual assault from a stranger, a young Polish woman grabs an opportunity and moves to Iceland to start a new life. Yet, the new chapter is filled with half-blind encounters and quirky dialogues with customers of a small Reykjavík restaurant, linguistic mishaps, and attempts to rediscover herself in a new country and a new language. 

Polishing Iceland is an autobiographical collection of stories, poems, and anecdotes, fragments of everyday conversations, thoughts, memories, and observations. The title of the book comes from a play on words, Polish and to polish, referring to physical work, the most common form of first employment among immigrants moving to Iceland.

AVAILABLE AT:

Language: English
Editor: angela rawlings
Design: Hólmfríður BenediktsdóttiR
Illustration: Marín Björt Valtýsdóttir
Published by: ÓS PRESSAN
Reykjavík · 2022
ISBN 978-9935-25-126-8
www.ospressan.com

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