All Backs Were Turned

REBEL LIT SERIES

Rebel Lit is a new series by New Vessel Press showcasing works of literature that display a spirit of rebellion, challenge, heroism and courage.

The first in this series is All Backs Were Turned, by Marek Hlasko. The novel is a bleak and brutal look at the lives of a woebegone group of outcasts in pre-1967 Israel, by the Polish author known as the James Dean of Eastern Europe. Hlasko, with his startling good looks and his hardboiled, existential prose, was an uncompromising artist who pointed out the hypocrisy and cruelties of society no matter the cost. Exiled from his native Poland, he drifted from country to country, using his pen to dismantle false veneers of civility and show the horror behind the masks he encountered. Hlasko wrote about a post-World War Two existence irreparably scarred by fascism and the Holocaust. Roman Polanski called Hlasko “a born rebel and troublemaker of immense charm.” The New York Times wrote that he was a “spokesman for those who were angry and beat … turbulent, temperamental, and tortured.” We are proud to present All Backs Were Turned as the inaugural title in the Rebel Lit Series from New Vessel Press.