Glagoslav Publications, an independent publisher based in the UK and the Netherlands and devoted to English translations of literature from Slavic countries, has published my translation of The Vampire by Władysław Reymont (1867-1925), winner of the 1924 Nobel Prize in Literature. This is the first English editions of The Vampire, first published in Polish in 1911. The book is indeed one of the first Polish works of horror; however, don’t be misled by the title. There are no creatures of the night that feast on blood, hate garlic and crosses, and turn into bats. The title instead refers to spiritual vampirism and is about Spiritualism and Occultism, with which Reymont was briefly associated; however, he broke with these movements, and The Vampire is a critique of them. Set in late nineteenth-century London, The Vampire is about Zenon, a skeptical Polish émigré writer whose friends attend séances. Zenon thinks this is all smoke and mirrors, but then he meets Daisy, a beautiful but enigmatic redhead who seems to defy the laws of physics. Meanwhile, there are no fewer than two other women vying for his affection…

You can buy my translation of The Vampire both on Amazon and on Glagoslav’s website.