The Penguin Book of Polish Short Stories

(Antonia Lloyd-Jones (ed), Penguin, £30)

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The 39 stories in this collection span a hundred years, during which Polish society underwent seismic political change several times over. Rather than arrange the stories chronologically, Lloyd-Jones has instead opted to group them under a series of themes - 'Animals', 'Children', 'Couples', 'Men behaving badly', 'Women behaving badly', 'Misfits', 'Soldiers', 'Surrealists' and 'Survivors'

A few of the selections could certainly prove useful for history students, having been written by individuals who lived through WWII.

For the most part, the stories are very readable and highly entertaining. Up until now, only nine of them had previously been available in English translation, making this volume a good introduction to the Polish literary tradition, and some imaginitve approaches to writing and narrative that your English students might not have encountered before.

This review was first published in Teach Secondary magazine.