Controlled Conversations

PEN/Hemingway Award Finalist

"Lagodzki's prose is as powerful as his plot is gripping. A historically astute tale with deep emotional impact. (...) OUR VERDICT: GET IT." Kirkus Reviews

In 1982 Soviet-controlled Poland-a time and place of suspicion and mistrust-when geopolitical forces and violent men descend upon her little town of Zygmuntowo, Emilia must decide if she's willing to risk prison or worse for self-respect and for her unexpected love.

A telephone station switchboard operator ordered to monitor all calls, Emilia overhears a mysterious coded conversation. It continues to distract her, but not as much as the growing realization that she's falling in unsanctioned love with her best friend Kalina. Meanwhile, outside the city of Frombork, Antek, a shipyard engineer and a Solidarity labor union treasurer, escapes from prison and works to recover the union's money, a task which in time leads him to Emilia's town. In the metropolitan city of Gdańsk, Roman, a secret police major, wants the money for himself and dreams of his own escape and the magical beaches of Rio de Janeiro.

As the only daughter of a local Communist Party apparatchik, Emilia has enjoyed a sheltered life, but with the advent of martial law, her mother's influence can no longer shield her. She faces choices she never expected to make when she discovers her best friend's and lover's involvement with the resistance. With new allies and enemies in town, the time to choose a side is now.

In his debut novel, Karol Lagodzki asks: What would you do?