In the Land of the Infidels

Jacek Dukaj

This volume includes eight short stories and a short novel by Jacek Dukaj in the genre of science fiction and alternative history from his collections published in 2000–2017. Works from his early collection In the Land of the Infidels belong to metaphysical and theological science fiction. Plots from the collection Xavras Wyżryn and other national works take the reader, in particular, to the horizons of alternative history, or even political philosophy, familiar from Ice. The latest stories — Vtrko and Portrait of a nonit — although completely different in plot and idea, but joined together by the mood and spirit of the current life of Eastern European man. Against the background of, as always, dynamic, ingenious and unique plots, the reader learns how the line between war and terrorism, reason and faith, hero and villain, artist and murderer disappears. Philosophical understanding of the moral dilemmas of our lives is one of the most interesting features of the writer and an important element of his works.