Did This Hand Kill? - Paperback

by Cezary Lazarewicz (Author), Sean Bye (Translator)

The follow up to Lazarewicz's harrowing Żeby Nie Bylo Śladóoacute;w (Leave No Trace) depicting the case of the political
murder of Grzegorz Przemyk-which earned Lazarewicz the Nike Literary Award in 2017--Did This Hand Kill? focuses on the case of Rita Gorgonowa, a cause céeacute;lèegrave;bre of the interwar
period in Poland.

Gorgonowa, a governess having an affair with her employer, was accused of brutally murdering his daughter, the 17-year-old Lusia on New Year's Eve in 1931. Despite her claims of innocence, Gorgonowa was declared
Poland's ultimate villain, and eventually convicted.

But questions remain about this case--the most notorious murder trial of the Second Polish Republic--along with questions about what exactly happened to Gorgonowa post-World War II. Lazarewicz revisits the crime with a contemporary lens and recreates the furor and celebrity revolving around this murder.

Author Biography

Cezary Lazarewicz is a Polish journalist who has worked for Gazeta Wyborcza, Przekrój, and Polityka. His books include Reportaże pomorskie (Pomeranian Reports, 2012); Sześc pięter luksusu. Przerwana historia domu braci Jablkowskich (Six Floors of Luxury: The Interrupted History of the Jablkowski Brothers' House, 2013); Elegancki morderca (Elegant Murderer, 2015); Żeby nie bylo śladów. Sprawa Grzegorza Przemyka (That There Would Be No Traces: The Case of Grzegorz Przemyk, 2016), for which he received the Nike Literary Prize, the Oscar Halecki Prize, and the MediaTora Prize; and Tu mówi Polska. Reportaże z Pomorza (Here is Poland: Reports from Pomerania, 2017). Żeby nie bylo śladów was also named Book of the Year by Radio Kraków and was a finalist for the Ryszard Kapuściński Prize.

Sean Gasper Bye is a translator of Polish fiction, reportage, and drama. He has published translations of Watercolours by Lidia Ostalowska, History of a Disappearance by Filip Springer, The King of Warsaw by Szczepan Twardoch, and Ellis Island: A People's History by Malgorzata Szejnert. He's also published shorter pieces in The Guardian, Words Without Borders, Catapult, World Literature Today, and elsewhere. He is a winner of the 2016 Asymptote Close Approximations Prize, a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts translation fellow, and former Literature and Humanities Curator at the Polish Cultural Institute New York.