Ben Aitken's A Chip Shop in Poznań: My Unlikely Year in Poland is a travelogue documenting a year the author spent in Poland. In spring 2016, Aitken, who is English, decided to move to Poland for one year, ostensibly to reverse the common direction of migration between the United Kingdom and Poland and learn why so many Poles had decided to migrate to the UK. The answer to that question turned out to be straightforward (economic opportunities and wages in British pounds), so Aitken spent the year travelling across Poland, talking to people, and learning about the country.
The author chose to establish his home base in Poznań. His justification for why illustrates his approach to travelling and writing. He declares he did not want to go to “Warsaw or Krakow, where there would be plenty of English speakers.” Instead, he wanted to live in a place that he “had...
