It was this censorship that at least partly explains why Lem decided to focus on science fiction, which was a less politicised genre at the time. He started writing shortly after the war, but like all Polish artists at the time he had to contend with strict censorship. In 1945 Lem, together with his family, was resettled in Kraków, like many other Polish citizens when Lwów became part of Soviet Ukraine. Lem worked as a mechanic and welder during war, employed at a German company, and had access to storehouses from which he would occasionally steal and pass munitions to the Polish Resistance. Survivorīorn into a Jewish family in 1921, in what is now Lviv, Ukraine (then Lwów in the Second Polish Republic), Lem survived World War II as his family managing to avoid being sent to the Lwów Ghetto with the help of forged papers. We may well see resurgence of interest in Lem this year, as in honour of the centenary of the his birth, the Polish parliament has declared 2021, “the Year of Lem”. He should be read and adapted to screen more often, so that new generations of readers and viewers could get to know him better,” says Jerzy Rzymowski, editor-in-chief of the long-running Polish magazine Fantastyka. “I think that while Lem’s work is known globally, he is a kind of a forgotten, underestimated classic – he deserves more recognition than he has got so far.

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In a world replete with technology, much of which Lem himself correctly predicted decades ago, his ideas remain instructive and relevant. This year marks one hundred years since the birth of Stanisław Lem, whose pioneering science fiction and philosophy of technology oeuvre still captures the imaginations of readers today.

The Year of Lem – which celebrates the centenary of his birth – aims to change that.

Best known as the author of Solaris, Stanisław Lem has been largely forgotten outside of his native Poland.

Solaris lem book