In no other Polish city is there such friction between the needs of modern urban life and the desire for an authentic rehabilitation of its historical architecture than in Gdansk: a dreamy image somewhere between progress and history; a dream city between the traditional and the modern. An urban history of a different is described in the childhood and youth of a young Polish writer among the great blocks of the planned socialist city, Nowa Huta. Today, this exemplary model town is experiencing a second youth. It has suddenly become chic to stroll along the broad boulevards and to visit the doner kebab shops.