The scene is something like this: one leaden winter morning the Chrobry , a luxury liner that set sail in Poland and has been traveling across the Atlantic Ocean for over twenty days, approaches Buenos Aires. The passengers include diplomats, businessmen, politicians and writers invited by the shipping company to cover the vessel’s maiden voyage. They include Witold Gombrowicz, a young avant-garde writer with piercing eyes and a disdainful grimace. From the estuary of the River Plate, the city looks mysterious, almost smudged, its lines seeming less refined than those of Paris but more modern than Warsaw’s. Article continues after advertisement The passengers disembark to discover this distant country, cold and damp, their hands in their pockets. Beyond the new port’s small promenade Retiro, the Torre de los Ingleses and Calle Florida appear. Some go back onto the ship, where they are met with multiple receptions laid on for ambassadors and personalities from the Polish and Argentinian community.…