The Institute (2021)
Polish title: Instytut (2010)
By: Jakub Zulczyk
Translated by: Marek Kazmierski
Published by: Legend Press
Originally published by: Świat Książki
Agnieszka and her flatmates are trapped in her apartment block in central Krakow. All windows and doors are sealed, phone lines are down and the Internet is off. Cut off from the world, they find themselves in a strange game played by the mysterious ‘THEY’. Paranoia thickens and tension builds as the chilling and gruesome endgame moves closer.
Jakub Żulczyk is a rising star of the Eastern European literature scene. His 2014 novel Blinded by the Lights was adapted into a tv series by HBO Europe and listed as one of the best tv shows made in Europe in 2018. He is a successful screenwriter as well as the author of the bestselling Polish novels Do Me Some Harm, Radio Armageddon, Hound Hill and Black Sun.
Jakub Zulczyk is the author of several popular publications already, such as Blinded by the Lights, which became the scenario for TV series of HBO, Do me some harm, Radio Armageddon, Hound Hill and Black Sun. All his books have psychologically dark plots.
The Institute can be classified as thriller, soaked in fear and blood. Characters presented in the book are not straightforward. It is not obvious, not easy to recognise, who is positive and who is negative.
Agnieszka, owner of the apartment called ‘The Institute’ is trapped there with seven other people. All doors are sealed; electricity and internet are cut off. Phones don’t work. Their level of fear rises when the group finds scary messages in various places. Quickly they realise that they can rely on themselves and walking from one room to another only worsens the situation. They need to share food. They become invisible for people who pass by. When they try to attract attention by breaking a bottle of wine, nobody reacts. Messages arrive, demanding ownership of the apartment from a mafia-like group. Members of the group begin discussing what may happen if they don’t agree to hand over the apartment, until they receive a delivery of pizza. Jacek, nicknamed Gypsy, clambers down to call for help, but later returns as the member of the mafia. One by one people from the trapped group are found dead.
Agnieszka’s daughter arrives by taxi, brought by a driver who knew where she was going. She informs her mother that the rest of her family has been killed, and that similar apartments with people trapped inside exist in different cities. At the end both escape at 3am, taking a random taxi, which passes by the group of people seeking them. Who they were, Agnieszka doesn’t try to guess.
Both of them survived and were going to a new life. Unsuitable marriages are terrible.
The book is fascinating, awakens emotions and feelings in readers. The story could have happened to any woman. Agnieszka is not presented as weak and crying but intelligent woman, who outsmarted an invisible mafia. She managed to buy the apartment and managed to escape from collective psychosis.