Eleven-Inch

The story begins in Western Europe shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Two queer teenagers from Eastern Europe travel to Vienna and then Zurich, hoping to build a better life as sex workers. They are very different people. Milan, known as Dianka, is a dreamy, passive naïf from Slovakia who drifts from one abusive sugar daddy to the next. Michał, a sanguine pleasure-seeker from Poland, quickly learns the selfishness and ruthlessness needed to get ahead in the wild capitalist West, and he makes use of the physical endowment that earns him the nickname 'Eleven-Inch'.

The pair move between poverty and flush times. Their world includes hustler bars, public toilets, nights in train stations and parks, and the opulent homes of wealthy clients.

With campy wit and sensuous humour, Michał Witkowski uses their story to explore Europe's shift from Soviet-style communism to neoliberal capitalism, seen through the experiences of its most marginalized people, destitute queers. The book was translated into English from the Polish original.