Lilianna: The Edge of Paradise by Dolores Savannah Ponin (Daughters of the Distant Shores Book 3)

 

Published by Dolores Savannah Books
Poland 2026
Original title: Podróż po miłość. Liliana #3
 

Most of us associate Florida with warm beaches, scuba diving, sunny and stress-free vacations or luxury neighborhoods located in large cities. However, it is important to remember that Florida also has a very rich history, which can be seen in each of its towns. Florida's history also includes extremely interesting people who once spent sometimes even long years of their lives there. Probably one of the most famous figures is Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899-1961), an American writer who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1956 for his short story The Old Man and the Sea. In turn, two years earlier the writer was honored with the Nobel Prize for Literature.
 
Ernest Hemingway was born in the American state of Illinois in the town of Oak Park. There he spent the first years of his childhood, during which he began to create his first literary works. These were primarily texts published in school newspapers, but most likely paved the way for his career as a journalist. In the 1920s Hemingway was already a member of the Literary Avant-Garde. The writer also wanted to join the ranks of the U.S. Army, but due to his health he was denied admission, which was a relief to his parents, who were strongly against it. Nevertheless, after some time he got his way and enlisted in the Red Cross. As a result, he found himself on the Italian front. He returned to the United States in 1920 and then began his serious struggle with literature. His works eventually saw the light of day. During an extremely impressive career, he worked as a journalist and foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star newspaper, working in Switzerland, Spain, Turkey, Germany, Italy and France. In 1922, Ernest Hemingway even interviewed Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) while he was still holding the office of prime minister. During the Spanish Civil War, as well as during World War II, the writer was a correspondent on behalf of the North American Newspaper Alliance agency. He also traveled to Hong Kong, China and Burma as a correspondent.

Ernest Hemingway and his second wife, Pauline Marie Pfeiffer, in Paris in 1927.

Ernest Hemingway's biography is extremely rich, while his life experiences had a huge impact on his literary works. He wrote most of his works based on his own experiences, changing only the names of the main characters. Such novels as A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises and the short stories To Whom the Bell Tolls and the aforementioned The Old Man and the Sea followed exactly this pattern. Ernest Hemingway was married four times, which was effectively denied him. He also had three sons. The writer's first wife was Elizabeth Hadley Richardson (1891-1979). The marriage lasted from 1921 to 1927. Then the writer married Pauline Marie Pfeiffer (1895-1951), with whom he lived for thirteen years (1927-1940). Hemingway's third wife was Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998), with whom he was only five years (1940-1945). The writer was married the longest to Mary Welsh (1908-1986). Their marriage lasted from 1946 to 1961, the day Hemingway died.
 
The relationship with his second wife led to Ernest Hemingway's association with Florida and the town of Key West. It was with Pauline Marie Pfeiffer and his two sons that he spent most of the year in a cottage on Key West. His stay there lasted ten years, and began quite innocently. One day the writer stayed there, returning home from an overseas trip. The car that was supposed to be substituted so that Hemingway could continue his trip simply did not arrive in time. He was then offered a temporary stay on the island. Ernest liked it there so much that he settled in Key West for years, which had quite an impact on his personal and professional life. Hemingway was so enchanted by this unusual place that he used to say about it that he felt on Key West as if he were in a completely different country. So there was nothing left for him to do but live there. His long stay on the island inspired him with great enthusiasm. In turn, the house where he lived allowed him to divide his time between writing, hunting and fishing. It was from there that he sometimes ventured to Cuba to catch bigger and better fish. He also loved hunting, for which he went to the less populated areas of Wyoming and Montana. He made these kinds of trips on his beloved boat named Pilar. However, he didn't just use it for hiking or fishing. Reaching an agreement with the American embassy in Cuba, the writer also participated in a civilian counter-intelligence operation and conducted patrol cruises to find Nazi submarines. Nevertheless, none of these actions had the desired effect.

Ernest Hemingway’s house in Key West, Florida, where he wrote, among
other works, the novel To Have and Have Not.
Photo by Andreas Lamecker

 
Not insignificant for Ernest Hemingway was also the local bar Sloppy Joe's, which was located at 201 Duval Street and later secretly moved to 428 Green Street. It was there that the writer spent his free time with his buddies, drinking and having fun away from the lights of literary glitter. The owner of the bar was a certain Joe Russell, who in time became the writer's closest friend. It was in this bar after Hemingway's death that the then unpublished fragments of the manuscript of his novel To Have and Have Not, whose main character, Freddy, possesses the qualities of Joe Russell, were found. In addition to the text of the book, several of Ernest Hemingway's personal belongings were also discovered there. At Sloppy Joe's bar Ernest Hemingway also met his third wife, Martha Gellhorn.

Ernest Hemingway's presence on the island of Key West has been felt ever since. The villa at 907 Whitehead Street, where the writer lived with his wife Pauline, is open to the public and is a kind of museum. Anyone can go to the Key West house as a tour participant. One can visit the living area there, as well as the study where Hemingway created. The museum allows visitors to go back in time and see items that witnessed the presence of one of America's most talented writers. When visiting the home of Ernest Hemingway, one can even touch the items in question, which were once touched by the writer himself. These objects repeatedly provided him with inspiration and helped him with his writing.

Sloppy Joe’s Bar, where Ernest Hemingway spent a great deal of time during
his stay in Key West.
The photo was taken in 1986.

 
Why did I write so extensively about Ernest Hemingway? Well, I did so because he is one of the protagonists of the third volume of the trilogy by Dolores Savannah Ponin. First the author introduced the readers to the figure of the medieval Persian poet Rumi (1207-1273), then there was the Russian painter-mariner of Armenian origin – Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900), while this time it is Ernest Hemingway, who most of us probably associate with the school reading The Old Man and the Sea. The writer is not the main character here, while Dolores Savannah Ponin focuses only on his stay on the island of Key West. From the book we do not learn how the writer's life was before arriving in Florida and after leaving it.
 
The narrative in Lilianna is carried out in two directions, so that the reader can observe the collision of two completely different worlds. On the one hand, we have the modern years and a kind of rat race connected with work in a certain multinational corporation, while on the other hand there are the interwar years and then the period of World War II. What happens in the present day concerns Marta, who is a successful woman. She works in a multinational corporation and is in charge of the Public Relations department. Her co-workers respect her a lot and count on her opinion, but Martha seems to feel that something is wrong despite everything. She has been feeling tired of her job for some time and somewhere subconsciously realizes that maybe it's finally high time to change something. When we observe Marta from the sidelines like this, we can easily come to the conclusion that the woman is not happy in life. However, a glittering career, prestige and big money are not enough to be able to say that she is satisfied with her life. One can also get the impression that she does her work like a programmed automaton.
 
One day Marta's father puts into her hands his mother's diary, which the latter began writing when she was still young, and she was very anxious that after her death this diary should go to Marta. Why? What is hidden in these notes that they are to prove so important to Lilianna's granddaughter? As a reminder, let me add that Lilianna is Maria's daughter, whom readers met in the second volume of the trilogy, and Emilia's granddaughter from volume one. Thus, throughout the trilogy we meet as many as five generations of the same family, which includes four generations of women and one male generation, which is represented by Marta's father. But let's return to the late Lilianna's diary. As Marta begins to read it, her world gradually begins to change. Using the leave she is entitled to at work, the woman sets out in her grandmother's footsteps and travels to Florida, specifically to the island of Key West, where for Lilianna it all really began. Marta follows not only Lilianna's footsteps, but also those of Ernest Hemingway himself, who played no small role in her grandmother's life. So will Marta, like her grandmother, find the love of her life there? Or will this trip turn out to be only a huge disappointment? Maybe such digging up of the past is completely unnecessary?

One of Ernest Hemingway’s great passions was catching large fish.
He practically hunted them as if they were wild animals, which he also loved.
In this 1935 photograph, the writer is seen with his wife Pauline and their sons.

Each of Dolores Savannah Ponin's novels has a certain unique atmosphere. In Emilia the reader experiences the peculiar atmosphere of the Orient, in Maria it is the distinctive climate of 19th century Crimea with the Crimean War in the background, while Lilianna fascinates with the specific atmosphere of 1930s America and the interwar period in Poland. The island of Key West – both past and present – is described with remarkable accuracy. The character of Ernest Hemingway is sketched to show not so much his creative work, but, above all, what kind of man he was and what really fascinated him and what bored him. The writer as seen through the eyes of the author is unlikely to arouse the sympathy of the reader, if that reader is a woman. It is possible that men would look at him differently, but for a woman he is a mere egoist looking only and exclusively at himself and interested in his own needs. He treats women objectively and only needs them so that he can feel valued. In retrospect, it may be surprising how much success Ernest Hemingway had with the opposite sex. Apparently, despite his flaws, he must have had some kind of latent magnetism in him that attracted women to him so much that they failed to see that the writer was simply playing on their feelings and, in a sense, exploiting them.
 
As for Marta and Lilianna, it would be fair to say that they are strong women who on the one hand have a lot in common, but on the other hand share just as much. Do they have a similar character? In some situations, indeed, between grandmother and granddaughter one can see some similarities. It is not clear how Marta would behave if she were in Lilianna's place, and vice versa. After all, each era has different social norms to which one would have to conform. Although Lilianna lived in an era that we associate with adherence to specific conventions, her attitude to the world began to change as soon as she left the family home. What she experienced in Vilnius was indeed extremely difficult for Lilianna and incomprehensible even to herself. It is possible that when going to America she wanted a change and did everything to make it happen, regardless of the consequences of her overly bold actions. One gets the impression, therefore, that her family home and Vilna environment incredibly restricted her, not allowing her to show herself as she really was. Marta, on the other hand, is a bit more reserved in her feelings, which may have something to do with the work she does. Holding a high position, after all, she is forced to constantly control her behavior, as all she has to do is forget once and read about it in the press the next day. Therefore, everything she does that is not related to work she does in secret.

And this is how people had fun at Sloppy Joe’s in the 1930s.
Painting by Waldo Peirce (1884–1970)

 
Lilianna, like perhaps none of the previous parts of the trilogy, has a very important message about the modern busy man. Namely, it is about freedom in what we do every day. I'll admit that while reading this book, I began to wonder if I was actually comfortable where I am at the moment. Or maybe something should be changed? Maybe my work is only limiting and overwhelming me, taking up too much of my time, leaving me short of time to pursue my passions? It is known that a lot depends on the reality in which we live. It is not always the case that we can suddenly drop everything and take up only what gives us pleasure and satisfaction. But on the other hand, it is sometimes worth considering whether we are going down the right path and whether, by chance, in a few years we will not regret that we did not dare to change something in our lives.

Agnes Anne Rose

translator, essayist, journalist, author