The World of My Books

The seventeen stories included in this book show, from multiple perspectives and in very diverse political, social and cultural contexts, the fragility of vital spaces built by people in their quest for peace, happiness and harmony. Against a background of rich experience and in an accessible language, these stories invite us to reflect on the complex moral universe of an ever changing world and on the unstable position that humans hold in it with their longings, fears and hopes.

Joanna Jarecke-Gomez was born in Cracow, Poland. She read Romance Languages at the Jagiellonian University, Cracow and Political Sciences in Brussels.

She was European Union expert in international affairs and director of the foreign affairs department. She is an author of essays and a collection of short stories “Jaguey and Other Stories”(2010) “Nazar and Other Stories”(2016) and “Merapi and Other Stories” (2020) . She speaks seven languages fluently. She lives in Brussels.

I would like to invite you into the world of my books. I write mainly short stories: tales from everyday life where you can imagine yourselves. All the stories are deeply rooted in everyday reality, although the action takes place in different parts of the world, the problems I write about are universal: ever present stress, the feeling of helplessness when facing global threat, toxic relationships within families. At the same time it is a world of vast possibilities – some find their place and happiness, or at least fleeting moments worth living for. The reader can find some sad and some funny moments in my stories. Some endings might be surprising.

I like the form that short stories take as they are compact but comprehensive at the same time. I write about what I am moved by, what I am worried about, what irritates me or entertains me in the reality of our time. Each story carries its own meaning, it expresses my perception of the world and is an invitation to reflect.

I wish you reflective reading.

In November 2020 my latest book “Merapi and other stories” came out. It is a set of sixteen stories of literary fiction in which the main characters, ordinary people, are confronted with unexpected problems and situations that force them to make ethical choice: between truth and lies, between selfishness and solidarity, between commitment and commodity. The reader discovers human stories full of passion and love but also of frustrated dreams and unhealed traumas in different corners of the world thus highlighting the universal character of man and the evils of modern society.