“The Romany and their tragicomic lives, the lives of the wheeler-dealers, the inhabitants of settlements and other peculiar characters and figures are the subject matter of the book. The trafficker Ferdy was promised the young and beautiful Sabina as compensation of a debt, but she fled and found the love of her life. The book spontaneously narrates the stories of Romany petty traders living in the east of Slovakia. It resembles Kusturica’s movies – full of passion, dramatic twists and humor.”
This is the description of Víťo Staviarsky’s 2013 Anasoft litera winning novel Kale topanky (Dark Shoes) on the award’s website for the writer. The Anasoft litera is the country’s biggest and most prestigious literary prize.
You can read an excerpt from the book in this week’s Saturday European Fiction in B O D Y translated from the Slovak by Julia and Peter Sherwood.
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