Julia Sherwood

This poetry collection masterfully weaves themes of identity, resilience, and the search for meaning against the backdrop of an endless winter. Katarína Kucbelová's whitewards is a haunting and deeply moving sequence of poems that unfolds in a stark, snowbound landscape where winter seems endless. Three unnamed figures struggle to find their way through a snow-covered mountainside, grappling with uncertainty, unspoken fears, and the weight of questions they can barely put into words. Framed as a series of brief fragments and longer passages that use a range of narrative and cinematic techniques, the collection explores themes of identity, survival, and the search for meaning in a time of global crisis-whether political, environmental, or technological. Yet amid the darkness, Kucbelová finds light in storytelling itself, offering it as a form of solace, a way to break through loneliness, and a means to endure. The beauty of her images stimulates and inspires, acting as an antidote to the bleakness of the world. This stunning collection of poems explores identity, survival, and the power that storytelling possesses to bring light even to the bleakest landscapes.

Our city on the Danube deserves a picture book. We couldn’t find one, so we put our heads together and this is the result. Because every living metropolis has stories to tell. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, as long as you love the city where you live, work or go to school, and want to make it better. Come and join us on an exciting ride on the magical Bratislava metro! And since our metropolis keeps changing, this new edition includes four new metro stations!

Tereza and Ivan share secrets. Tereza is now in art school away from the town where she grew up. Ivan is a teacher and artist. Tereza is now nineteen, Ivan is fifty-seven. They have known each other for years. Tereza shares her secrets with her friend Silvia. Ivan does not tell anyone. He constructs memories of Tereza to keep in his bed at night, covering them with sweat and tears. In this minimalist, poetic novella with autobiographical elements, Nicol Hochholczerova weaves a story of obsession and power and how both can lead to damage and separation. Rich with symbolism, its explosive themes - of eating disorder, abusive control and family dysfunction - are delicately handled with honesty and intelligence.

Lietajúce žirafy je fantastický príbeh od Agnieszky Taborskej, ktorý nám ponúka pohľad do sveta plného nečakaných udalostí a zázrakov. Hlavná postava, stará Apolónia sa vydá na dobrodružnú cestu vesmírom cez Mliečnu dráhu v dome, ktorý vzlieta počas víchrice. Taborska vytvára pútavý príbeh plný nečakaných zvratov a magických momentov. Kniha je doplnená krásnymi ilustráciami ilustrátorky Krystyny Lipky-Sztarbałło. Kniha je príbehom o cestovaní vesmírom, ale aj o súčasnej utečeneckej kríze; všetky ilustrácie sú vo farbách ukrajinskej vlajky: modrej a žltej. Hoci nejde o príbeh, ktorý priamo reaguje na vojnu, je to príbeh, ktorý má za cieľ dať nádeji a predstavivosti priestor pre rozvíjanie sa v ťažkých časoch. Kniha je dvojjazyčná – v slovenskom a ukrajinskom jazyku. Rozprávky Agnieszky Taborskej sa prihovárajú deťom i dospelým. Jej najnovšia knižka prináša príbeh o najzvláštnejších stvoreniach na svete, o starej Apolónii a jej „chlapčenských” dobrodružstvách a magickej Mliečnej dráhe. Hlavná hrdinka nie je bosorka ani dobrotivá starenka štopkajúca ponožky, ale stelesnenie feministky v pokročilejšom veku. Koho nefascinuje nebo? Komu by sa nechcelo utiecť do vesmíru?

A beautifully written and moving story about the power of tradition and the importance of women’s stories. The Bonnet, the first work of prose by Slovak poet Katarína Kucbelová, defies easy pigeonholing: both political and personal, it is a work of literary reportage, a quest for one’s roots, a critical exploration of folk art and, not least, social commentary on the coexistence of the Slovak majority and the Roma minority, offering a nuanced and sympathetic look at the lives of Roma people in Slovakia, and raising important questions about the nature of prejudice and discrimination. Over two years, the author made regular visits to the remote village of Šumiac in Slovakia to learn the dying craft of bonnet making from one of its last practitioners, Il’ka, an elderly local woman who in the process became her mentor in more ways than one. Through the parallel stories of Il’ka and the narrator’s grandmother, The Bonnet also offers a subtly feminist reading of the position of women in rural Europe from the early twentieth century to the present day.

Traditional African narrative forms combined with European modernism. The stories comprising The Healer, Marek Vadas’s first collection, which was originally published in 2006, are steeped in the culture, rituals, and traditions of Africa, blurring the boundaries between dream and reality and peopled with characters whose gender, shape, skin color or even memories may change at a stroke. Nevertheless, Vadas refuses to exoticize this world, and many of the stories, told in pared-down language, blend mythical elements with realistic depictions of harsh living conditions, economic deprivation, and colonial oppression. The narratives unfold from the perspective of their protagonists-children (often orphaned), and men struggling to make ends meet and trying in vain to resist the allure of strong women endowed with magic powers. As a Slovak writer focusing on the African continent, Vadas is a rare voice that helps to build bridges between very different cultures, and now his writing is introduced to the global anglophone readership.

Dead is Balla's most recent book and marks a glorious return to the short story form. The stories are very topical dealing with the theme of masculinity, how that is expressed in different forms of aggressive nationalism, Slovak 'nativism' and delusional male interior monologues.

It is 1984 and a small town somewhere in the east of the CzechoslovakSocialist Republic is in the firm grip of totalitarianism. Unruly andsickly Karolina is growing up in an all-female household includingher hot-blooded, knife-wielding grandmother. Repelled by her mum's serial love affairs Karolina runs away andstumbles upon a riding school on the edge of town. There, shebefriends Romana, a girl with one leg shorter than the other andMatilda, a rider and trainer who helps the two girls overcome theirphysical limitations. Together they found a successful trick-ridingteam and soon it seems that half flags, mills and scales are not theonly tricks flashing like blades up her sequinned sleeve as Karolinaexplores Pink Floyd and smoking, and discovers her knack for seeingdeep into others' souls. The fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 and the subsequent arrival ofcapitalism threatens to destroy the riding school. The team has toturn professional. But in a sport of perfect scores is there still roomfor Romana and Karolina...?The Equestrienne is a poetic, caustic coming-of-age novel about thedesire of one young girl to realise her dreams before and after VelvetRevolution; it is a celebration of friendship between women and alsoa bitter acknowledgement that greed and the desire for power candestroy any relationship.

It's 1954 and nine-year-old Mira's life is about to change forever. After a typhoid outbreak rages through her town, robbing her of her parents and siblings, the orphaned child is forced to live with her mysterious, depressive Aunt Hana, a figure both frightening and fragile.Gradually, Mira uncovers the secrets of their troubled family history and begins to understand why her aunt is so incapable of trusting herself and the world around her. Deftly weaving two separate timelines, the harrowing reasons behind Hana's reclusive way of life, the guilt she wears as palpably as a cloak, and the tattoo on her wrist, are revealed to Mira. Alena Mornstajnova's gripping novel, which is based on real events, has won numerous awards and been translated into over a dozen languages across the world.

Blanka takes a summer job at a centre for people with physical disabilities in the French city of Marseille, where her encounter with their severe conditions ends badly. A deeply unsettling, visceral tale of a young woman unravelling, evolving from carer to cared for. A novel about our own inability to escape 'our own private cages', imprisoned by fear, anxiety and mistrust, no less than indifference to others. The author: IVANA DOBRAKOVOVA (1982) graduated from Bratislava's Comenius University with a degree in English and French (translation and interpretation). She is based in Turin where she works as a freelance translator from French and Italian into Slovak, currently working on Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels. She debuted in 2009 with her short story collection Prva smrt v rodine (The First Death in the Family), followed by the novel Bellevue (2010). Her most recent collection of short stories Toxo appeared in 2013. She has won several literary competitions, including Poviedka 2008, and all three of her books have been shortlisted for the Anasoft Litera prize. In 2019, she was awarded the EU Prize for Literature.

Andric and his girlfriend Laura have been seeing each other for a long time now but it isn't clear what each sees in the other. Self-absorbed, delusional or just a regular couple? 'Big Love is primarily a critique of contemporary society, in which the triumph of liberal democracy has increased rather than diminished the Kafkaesque aspects of life.' - Charles Sabatos.

Balla is often described as "the Slovak Kafka" for his depictions of the absurd and the mundane. In the Name of the Father features a nameless narrator reflecting on his life, looking for someone else to blame for his failed relationship with his parents and two sons, his serial adultery, the breakup of his marriage and his wife's descent into madness. Against the backdrop of their stiflingly grey provincial lives, he completely fails to act against "the thing" growing in the cellar of the house he built with his brother. The book won numerous awards in Slovakia and in this edition is accompanied by three additional short stories, which share its unique dark humour, satire and truth.

Though Into the Spotlight is drawn from the work of writers from one of Europe's smallest countries, this source reveals itself to be something like a magic lamp out of which comes a multitude of subjects, themes, and styles well out of proportion to its size. Like the best writers, this anthology brilliantly balances the specific and the universal. There are stories that could have taken place anywhere-of love and hate, beauty and ugliness, illness and music-stories distinctly and intriguingly Slovak-of a devout Slovak's imprisonment in the Russian Gulag, the rough and tumble world of the country's Roma-stories from other countries and continents, and stories that seem to come from other worlds entirely-of real or imaginary doubles and surreal nocturnal circuses.