Happy Land

Nominations for the Janusz A. Zajdel Prize, the Jerzy Żuławski Prize, and SFinks. The fulfillment of a dream. Payment upon completion. Want to get rich? Or maybe you’re looking for love? Or do the voices in your head prevent you from living? Make a wish and see what happens. The fulfillment of a dream. Payment upon completion. Everyone is plagued by desires. They dream of wealth, love, happiness. Shimek and his three friends live in the small town of Rykusmyku. They’re tormented by teenage problems and thoughts about the future—and each of them has a cherished wish for the fulfillment of which they’re ready to do anything. The town’s main attraction is an old castle tied to a dark legend known to everyone, but no one dares to speak about it out loud. On the last day of summer, the friends gather the courage and climb into the castle’s dungeons to make their dreams come true. But for everything you have to pay—and now they’re bound by a secret that will change their entire lives. They need to find a way to free themselves from the past. Or at least manage to forget it. “Happy Land” is a journey through reality—both monstrous and unbelievably attractive. It draws attention, stirs, and makes you think about the need for love and stability, dependence on material property, and the ever-present emptiness. The stories of four friends tied by one secret interweave into a tale about modern thirty-somethings, their dilemmas, and the shadows of the past.

“This is the story about what every novel should be about: life and everything that hides beneath its surface. Here you can find mysterious meanings in ordinary things and ordinary things in the incredible.” — Szczepan Twardoch

“The author’s world doesn’t need monsters or crimes to catch the reader off guard. Classic horror is built on sincere empathy for the terrors and wonders of childhood. Orbitowski gradually pulls the naked nightmare of human existence out of horror literature.” — Jacek Dukaj

“An excellent moral tale— piercing, powerful, and sometimes drawing a painful portrait of our generation.” — Wit Szostak

“Dense, powerful, and painfully truthful.” — Jarosław Urbaniuk

“Orbitowski gives an astonishing horror novel the shape of magnificent modern prose, seasoned with detective elements. The story of how a group of teenagers says goodbye to youth in the devil’s castle cellars becomes a parable about the suffering of endless urges and the hell of wish fulfillment. There is nothing ordinary in this novel, but we see our world with its problems in it.” — Nowa Fantastyka

“No one else tells us about the everyday and horror of life quite as convincingly as Łukasz Orbitowski. It’s the most beautiful and at the same time the most touching of his books.” — Joanna Miika-Orzondala