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What does living with disinformation, under decades of surveillance and official untruth, do to a culture over time? Join us for an evening with Mariusz Szczygieł, one of Poland's most celebrated investigative journalists, as he discusses Gottland: Exploding Stalin and Other True Tales from the Heart of Europe a work of literary reportage, now published by Linden Editions in a new translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. A reporter for Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza since 1990 and co-founder of the Polish Reportage Institute in Warsaw, Szczygieł spent three decades crossing the border into Czechoslovakia interviewing those who lived through fascism and Communist rule, unearthing secrets, and piecing together a hidden history that official accounts preferred to leave buried. What he found was a country that had turned invention and hoax into a national art form, embracing forged manuscripts and fictional geniuses as acts of quiet resistance. The result is a book that raises questions at the very heart of journalism: how do you tell the truth about a country that has made an art form of fiction? How do you report on a place where propaganda has reshaped memory itself? And what can a society with decades of experience living inside official untruth teach us about our own moment? Szczygieł will be in conversation with Stanley Bill, Professor of Polish Studies at the University of Cambridge and founder of Notes from Poland, with translator Antonia Lloyd-Jones interpreting live and joining the conversation on the challenges of bringing this kind of reportage to English-language readers. Winner of the European Book Prize, Gottland has been reviewed to acclaim across Europe and America. This is a rare chance to hear one of Europe's foremost literary reporters on truth, propaganda, and the long afterlife of disinformation. Doors at 6 PM.

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