Love at First Sight

A poem by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, illustrated for readers of all ages that will challenge assumptions about falling in love.

They’re both convinced / that a sudden passion joined them.
Such certainty is beautiful, / but uncertainty is more beautiful still.

Love at First Sight is a poem about love and chance and destiny by the 1996 Polish winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Illustrated by Italian artist Beatrice Gasca Queirazza, Szymborska’s poem comes to life in entirely new ways for her readers and for lovers everywhere in this oversized book perfect for gift giving.

Szymborska tells of two young lovers bound together in an instant--or were they? As the poem unfolds, the reader’s assumptions--like those of the lovers themselves--about certainty and destiny are utterly upended, revealing the paradox and mystery of fate. Here is randomness, tricks of memory, and chance, where noticing the smallest details of our intertwined lives is more essential than asking, Are we meant for each other? ＂Every beginning / is only a sequel, after all...＂

WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA is a Polish poet who received international recognition when she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996. Collections of her poems that have been translated into English include People on a Bridge (1990), View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems (1995), Miracle Fair (2001), and Monologue of a Dog (2005). Szymborska lived most of her life in Krakow; she studied Polish literature and society at Jagiellonian University and worked as an editor and columnist. A selection of her reviews was published in English under the title Nonrequired Reading: Prose Pieces (2002). She received the Polish PEN Club prize, the Goethe Prize, and the Herder Prize.

BEATRICE GASCA QUEIRAZZA is an Italian illustrator and graphic designer based in Torino, Italy. She studied illustration and animation at Institute European Design in Milan and studied painting and screenprinting at Saint Martin’s School in London. Her favorite materials are pencil, ink, collage and digital color.