You will never know what really happened to Lech or any of us. We mean nothing by it, darling. It is a silent agreement we all have with ourselves, that nothing will ever make us prisoners again, not even memory.?

Set primarily in the neighbourhood of fictional Copernicus Avenue, Andrew Borkowski's debut collection of short stories is a daring, modern take on life in Toronto's Polish community in the years following World War II. Featuring a cast of young and old, artists and soldiers, visionaries and madmen, the forgotten and the unforgettable, Copernicus Avenue captures, with bold and striking prose, the spirit of a people who have travelled to a new land, not to escape old grudges and atrocities, but to conquer them.

Andrew J. Borkowski was born and raised in Toronto’s Roncesvalles Village. He studied Journalism and English Literature at Carleton University. As a freelance journalist, he has published articles in the Globe and Mail, the Canadian Forum, Quill & Quire, TV Guide, and the Los Angeles Times. His short fiction has appeared in Grain, The New Quarterly, and in Storyteller magazine. His short story “Twelve Versions of Lech,” which appears in Copernicus Avenue, was nominated for the 2007 Writer’s Trust/McClelland and Stewart Journey Prize and published in Journey Prize Stories 19.

Andrew J. Borkowski's profile page

• Winner, Toronto Book Award
• Short-listed, Danuta Gleed Literary Award

“[Its] tales are distilled to the essence of storytelling, integrating character, setting and structure to condense a complex world into a few pages … raised in Toronto’s Roncesvalles village, Borkowski makes Copernicus Avenue the vibrant backbone anchoring this kaleidoscopic whirl of events and lives.”

The Globe and Mail

“The clarity and economy of Borkowski’s language conjures every familiar smell and streetscape in the Roncesvalles neighbourhood. This collection of subtly interwoven short stories reaches into the soul of all who have struggled though adversity and continue to persevere.”

Toronto Book Award jury citation

“When literary topographers put together a map of Toronto in fiction, Copernicus Avenue will provide invaluable information and insight.”

National Post

Copernicus Avenue

by Mary E