Required Reading for the Post-Brexit Era: A Review of Agnieszka Dale's Fox Season and Other Short Stories (2017, Jantar Publishing)

The collection of short stories in Agnieszka Dale’s debut Fox Season (published in 2017 by Jantar) might be considered required reading for the post-Brexit era. Dale, a Polish-born, London-based author (“conceived in Chile” as her bio cheekily adds) navigates the historical, political, and socio-economic barriers which have persisted on the European continent even when romantic notions of European solidarity were at their strongest. Like the author, many of the main characters in these twenty-one thought-provoking, often humorous stories are Polish women living in the United Kingdom. They are working mothers, grieving widows, emotionally unfulfilled wives. They are all driven by a sense of purpose in this world that is family-driven, rooted in the hidden beauty of everyday life. This is not always an easy task, considering both the subtle and blatant forms of othering that immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe have had to endure abroad. None of the women in these stories are victims of their circumstances, however, no matter how dire they might seem. They rely on their wit, their charm, their motherly instincts, their sexuality to get what they need and deserve.

Several of the stories are about Brexit itself, “A Happy Nation” being the standout among them. In this story, the main character, a woman by the name of Krystyna Kowalska, engages in a battle of wits with an immigration officer who is at her door to send her, the only immigrant who has refused to leave, back to Poland. “I can speak English like a British person now,” declares Kowalska. “And that’s exactly why you want me to go, isn’t it? Because you’ve lost control. You can no longer tell me from the others.” At the end of the story, it is revealed that the police officer’s name, perhaps unsurprisingly, is Adam Michalowski. A Brit of Polish descent. The story now turns from a surreal dystopia into a tragicomedy. The reader is left wondering, alongside Kowalska, how long ago did this Michalowski’s family come to live in the United Kingdom? How long did it take for them to lose the sense of belonging in their family name, language, and traditions? This almost banal revelation also raises a much more serious point, that Western countries were built off of the hard labor of immigrants of poorer countries such as Poland. Indeed, it ties into a bigger, global neocolonial phenomenon, which relies on the bodies of said workers while not fully acknowledging their humanity. Still, Kowalska remains an optimist. As she tells Officer Michalowski, a political crisis is not exactly a crisis, it’s just an inconvenience. 

Jantar Publishing’s catalog reflects a penchant for translations, but Dale’s Fox Season was written in English. It is not the only book from Jantar’s catalog to originally have been written in English, A.M. Bakalar’s Children of our Age sharing that distinction. At the moment, most of the books available from Jantar are translations of Czech literature, including a delightfully wicked anthology of Czech decadent writers. But if their current catalog indicates anything, it is that they will continue to introduce many more talented writers from Central and Eastern Europe to English language readers in the years to come.

Agnieszka Dale's Fox Season and Other Short Stories can be purchased on Jantar Publishing’s website.
Reviewed by Kate Tsurkan