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A Chip Shop in Poznań

My Unlikely Year in Poland

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A Chip Shop in Poznań

By: Ben Aitken
Narrated by: Will M. Watt
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Summary

"One of the funniest books of the year..." (Paul Ross, talkRADIO)

WARNING: CONTAINS AN UNLIKELY IMMIGRANT, AN UNSUNG COUNTRY, A BUMPY ROMANCE, SEVERAL SHATTERED PRECONCEPTIONS, TRACES OF INSIGHT, A DOZEN NUNS AND A REFERENDUM.

Not many Brits move to Poland to work in a fish and chip shop.

Fewer still come back wanting to be a Member of the European Parliament.

In 2016, Ben Aitken moved to Poland while he still could. It wasn’t love that took him but curiosity: he wanted to know what the Poles in the UK had left behind. He flew to a place he’d never heard of and then accepted a job in a chip shop on the minimum wage.

When he wasn’t peeling potatoes he was on the road scratching the country’s surface: He milked cows with a Eurosceptic farmer; missed the bus to Auschwitz; spent Christmas with complete strangers and went to Gdańsk to learn how communism got the chop. By the year’s end he had a better sense of what the Poles had turned their backs on - southern mountains, northern beaches, dumplings! - and an uncanny ability to bone cod.

This is a candid, funny and offbeat tale of a year as an unlikely immigrant.

©2019 Ben Aitken (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Europe Travel Writing & Commentary Funny United Kingdom
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Really engaging listen, funny, warm and above all interesting. Really well narrated by the author too.

Entertaining listen

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Beautifully narrated and fascinating story. Would definitely recommend it. I will also listen to it again.

Enjoyed every minute.

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Poetic prose used to illuminate the mundane. Makes me fancy a trip to Poznaz. 😂

Excellent, unexpectedly brilliant.

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describes Poland and its people and culture well. I went in 2001 to Poznan, enjoyed the novelty of Poland pre EU , the people were then quite introverted to foreigners but as they grew with EU MEMBERSHIP and the younger generations shook off their last 50 years , they expanded to a very different nation

nor home most of the time

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Though the narrator was very talented, having listened to most of Aitkin's other books, I really missed the author's own voice! He has such a way of using turns of phrase. The narration on this one really lacked the same pace and delivery of otherwise what would have been laugh out loud moments if Ben were narrating it.

Another interesting, thoughtful and often humorous book from Ben Aitkin.

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