Radek Rak (born 1987) is a Polish veterinarian best known as a writer of fantasy literature.[1]
He authored both novels and short stories. His novels are winners of several Polish literary awards. With the 2015 short story Kwiaty paproci ["Fern flowers" he took part in the project Polish Legends.
Robert Z., a patient of a sanatorium is involved with "demonic painter Iwona" and the "intriguing doctor Małgorzata". But suddenly Iwona disappears and it turns out that nobody but Robert ever saw her... The novel, starting realistrically, gradually turns out into a dreamlike, illogical, fantastic tale... Eventually the titular Lilith appears as well...[5][6]
Puste niebo ["Empty Sky"] (2016)
From publisher's review: "The novel was created out of longing for times gone by, a city that never existed and a history that could not have happened. Puste niebo tells the story of magical Lublin, extraordinary inhabitants of the former Kresy ["Eastern Borderlands"] and strange creatures from the borderlands of the afterlife. Radek Rak's novel is magical realism in its original Polish edition". The protagonist, Tołpi, a naive youth, smashes the Moon and has to make a new one, because the life without the Moon is disrupted. [7]
From publisher's summary: "Agla is a daring adventure story, but also an insightful and moving psychological novel about growing up and changing, about love and discovering one's physicality, about disappointed friendships, exclusion and loneliness, about finding oneself and becoming a human being in the full sense of the word."[13]
Winner of the Janusz A. Zajdel Award, Jerzy Żuławski Literary Award, Nowa Fantastyka Award (Polish Book of the Year category)
From publisher's summary: "Agla. Aurora is a book about how good people accidentally build totalitarianism. And about how the answers to our questions often sound different than we would like them to."[14]
Nominated for Zajdel Award .[15] Nominated for Nowa Fantastyka,[16] but did not win.[17]
