Go Home Polish

Some books arrive with straightforward titles such as Gardening for Beginners or Introduction to Accounting. Others choose a more direct approach. Go Home Polish falls firmly into the latter category, immediately announcing itself with the sort of phrase that tends to stop conversations, provoke questions and make people glance twice at the cover to ensure they read it correctly.

Created by photographer and artist Michal Iwanowski, this unusual and deeply personal work documents a remarkable journey: a walk of nearly 1,200 miles from Wales to Poland. It sounds simple enough when summarised in a single sentence. In reality, it involves crossing countries, landscapes, cultures and memories, all while carrying the complicated baggage that accompanies questions of identity, belonging and migration.

The title itself comes from a xenophobic remark directed at the author in Wales. Many people might have dismissed the incident, muttered a few choice words and continued with their day. Iwanowski instead transformed it into an extraordinary artistic project, retracing a route back to the country of his birth and exploring what "home" actually means. This is a wonderfully disproportionate response. Most people write an angry letter. Iwanowski walked across Europe.

As the journey unfolds, readers encounter photographs, observations and reflections that transform an individual experience into something much broader. The landscapes change. Borders come and go. Languages shift. Yet the questions remain stubbornly relevant. Where do we belong? What makes a place home? Can a person belong to more than one place at once? And why do humans remain so strangely obsessed with drawing lines on maps and then arguing about them?

One of the book’s greatest strengths is its refusal to become either a lecture or a complaint. Instead, it invites readers along for the walk, allowing the journey itself to reveal insights. The result feels intimate, thoughtful and occasionally humorous, even when dealing with serious themes. There is something undeniably compelling about a person setting off on foot to process an experience that most of us would struggle to articulate in a few sentences.

The irony, of course, is that the phrase "Go Home Polish" assumes that home is a simple, singular destination. This book demonstrates exactly the opposite. Home turns out to be a far more complicated concept than a street address or a passport. It can be several places at once, or sometimes nowhere obvious at all.

Published independently in 2024, this handsome little volume occupies that fascinating territory between travel writing, photography, memoir and social commentary. It is the sort of book that can be read in an afternoon but linger in the mind for considerably longer. Readers expecting a conventional travel guide may be surprised. Readers expecting a political manifesto may be equally surprised. Instead they will find something more subtle and human.

This copy remains in good condition overall. The only notable flaw is that the rear cover has been folded at some point, a small imperfection that slightly detracts from what is otherwise a very attractive little book. Given the subject matter, one might even argue that a minor wrinkle acquired during a long journey is entirely in keeping with the spirit of the work.

Ideal for lovers of photography, travel, contemporary art, migration studies, memoirs and books that ask interesting questions without pretending to possess easy answers. It is thoughtful, distinctive and refreshingly original.

Sold by Crappy Old Books, where even a small folded corner can serve as evidence that a book, much like its author, has travelled a little way before arriving where it belongs.

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