Pornografia

A searing psychological thriller set in wartime Poland, Pornografia is one of the highest regarded works by Witold Gombrowicz, a master of twentiethcentury world literature. In the midst of the German occupation of Poland, two aging intellectuals travel to a farm in the countryside, looking for a respite from the claustrophobic scene in Warsaw. Almost immediately, they are transfixed by a pair of country youths—the betrothed daughter of the farm’s owner and a young farmhand fresh off a stint in the Polish resistance. The older men are determined to orchestrate a tryst between the teenagers, but their plot is derailed by violent developments: a coldblooded murder and an order from the underground movement for the men at the farm to assassinate a rogue resistance captain who has sought refuge there. Pornografia is one of Gombrowicz’s most memorable achievements— a consuming tale of brutality, obsession, and desire.