Winner of the 2009 European Book Prize, Gottland is for Mariusz Szczygiel the Czech Republic. That is why he has written a book about the Czechs at the same time erudite and masterful, full of unusual characters and stories: the building of the largest monument to Stalin in the world; the rise and fall of a movie star Goebbels had fallen madly in love with; the epic of the Bata dynasty; Franz Kafka's niece's subterfuges to preserve her anonymity… Gottland is, after all, a wonderful collection of cruel little tales.

"Mariusz Szczygiel succeeds because he is able to color true stories that are more interesting than fiction."
Kazimierz Wolny-Zmorzynski