M HKA Ensembles

Book, 18 x 12 cm.

Collection: Courtesy Catherine Podolski, Private collection.

*Published by Montfaucon Research Center

In just a few years, between 1968 and 1974 until her untimely death at the age of 21, Sophie Podolski produced a remarkable body of writings and drawings, emblematic of a time marked by sexual liberation and a disenchanted youth. Podolski was prolific during her lifetime, and had published her work at a young age, intertwining text and image with raw expression and emotion to reflect her unrestrained creative and libertarian life, Podolski is mentioned in chapters 2 and 7 of Bolaño’s Antwerp. Bolaño was a great admirer of her writing, and mentioned Podolski is several of his stories.

The literary journal Luna-park issue 2, edited by Marc Dachy, provides the link between Bolaño and Podolski. It was in this issue that Bolaño first encountered Podolski’s writing, which he also describes in another short story titled Vagabond in France and Belgium. In the story, the character B, who we could consider as an alter-ego of Bolaño picks up a copy of the journal on his travels “Sophie Podolski was a poet whom he and his friend L admired (even adored) back in Mexico, when they were little more than twenty years old.”

Le pays ou tout est permis (The Country Where Everything is Permitted) was the one and only novel published by Podolski, written in 1971 and published the following year.

With special thanks to:
Caroline Dumalin
Catherine Podolski