The Polish Opalka decides to leave his country, about to go to war, to go to the Amazon in search of his son. Along the way, he meets Bopp, a Brazilian tourist who leaves behind his plans in Europe to join his journey. With a sharp sense of humor, Opisanie świata, a kind of carnival travel book, narrates the meeting of these two characters. In the words of the author, the Brazilian Veronica Stigger, the result is an encounter between two worlds that takes place on a ship, the quintessential non-place.

Located in the 1930s, this first Stigger novel is a book that can also be read in the images: it uses advertising, postcards and fragments of a South American travel guide, excerpts from what Opalka finds in the journey. As it unfolds and multiplies in its readings, the novel creates its own description of the world. That, precisely, means the title in Polish: “description of the world”, and coincides with the title of the translation of Marco Polo's Travels.

Originally published by the now legendary Brazilian publisher Cosac Naify, Opisanie świata is the winner of the Machado de Assis award from the Foundation of the Brazilian National Library and the São Paulo prize for literature 2014, as well as a finalist in the Jabuti and Portugal Telecom prize for literature.