INSTEAD OF FOREVER WAITING FOR SOMETHING, START LIVING – TODAY. IT IS MUCH LATER THAN YOU THINK.
A gripping and moving tale of a meeting between two guys from completely different worlds – a meeting that saved one of their lives. The true story of the friendship between Father Jan Kaczkowski, a stereotype-breaking, charismatic priest, and Patryk Galewski, a repeat offender – and today a chef – grabs you by the heart and inspires.
Patryk did not have an easy start in life. He began his criminal career at the age of twelve. It seemed his life would forever swing between one stint behind bars and the next, but when a court sentence sends him to work at the hospice in Puck, he meets Father Jan Kaczkowski, who will change his life forever.
If someone asked me what object symbolises my life choices, I would say: a firecracker. Because my criminal career began with a break-in at a kiosk selling firecrackers and fireworks. Firecrackers made me a criminal, until one day I met a lame and nearly blind priest whose most famous line is the one about living life at full blast. A blast, right?
Father Kaczkowski, an extraordinary eccentric treated dismissively by important eminences, had a way with angry young men. He got boys from the vocational school – seemingly hardened rebels – involved in helping the sick. Often acting in unconventional ways unbecoming of a priest, he won hearts and gained popularity. Maciej Kraszewski’s novel is the story of a subversive friendship that had no right to happen, and yet really did. It is a tale full of authentic emotion about a life that puts you through the wringer, a faith that works miracles and a friendship that can change a life. The story of Patryk and Father Jan also became the basis for the film of the same title, starring Dawid Ogrodnik and Piotr Trojan, which hits cinema screens this autumn.
I want to tell the truth. My story. Today I am a human being. I am the same man, but not the same as I was. You will probably be surprised at how lightly and wittily I tell it. Someone came along who learned this improbable story and decided to tell it. – Patryk Galewski
Patryk told me his life story. I had countless conversations with his parents, his siblings and people who knew Jan Kaczkowski well. I knew him myself – we talked for hours on many occasions. I have watched probably every video there is on YouTube. How to tell this story? Jan would want plenty of humour, distance, sarcasm. He would want all the most important words he spoke on television and wrote in his books. His message, his mission, lives on in the pages of this book as well. – Maciej Kraszewski
BOOK AND AUDIOBOOK 7 September
