
The Healer
Seagull Books London Ltd (Publisher)
Published on 6. May 2023
Book
Hardback
150 pages
978-1-80309-162-4 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Greenford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 158 mm
Width: 239 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
362 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80309-162-4 (9781803091624)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Marek Vadas is an advisor to the king of Nyenjei, a small kingdom in Cameroon, and the author of several books, including the short story collections Black on Black, A Bad Neighborhood, and Six Foreigners. Julia Sherwood is a translator of Slovak, Czech, Polish, Russian, and German into English. She is editor-at-large for Slovakia for Asymptote, cocurates the website SlovakLiterature.com and is the editor of Seagull Books' Slovak List. Peter Sherwood is a translator and scholar who served as the Laszlo Birinyi, Sr., Distinguished Professor of Hungarian Language and Culture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His translations from Hungarian include collections of essays by Bela Hamvas and Antal Szerb, and several novels, such as Adam Bodor's The Birds of Verhovina.
Content
1.I'm a Boy from a Book
2.I'll Just Sit and Watch
3.Death at a Party
4.Brown One Day, Black the Next
5.Hotel Beau Regard
6.There's Nothing for Me to Forget
7.A New Job
8.A Day Drenched in Water
9.Flying Women
10.Under a Sunlit Sky
11.Mr Hat
12.Pushing the Limits
13.Visit to Lambarene
14.River
15.How Death Came into the World
16.The Schemer
17.The Shadow
18.The Blaze
19.The New World
20.A Desperately Wonderful Life
21.The Snake Man and the Lion Woman
22.The Field
23.Flesh and Bones
24.Yellow Eyes
25.The King Is Waiting
26.Yola
27.Who's That Brawling Anyway?
28.How to Dance the Makossa
29.Pimentos
30.The Farewell Dance
31.The Healer
2.I'll Just Sit and Watch
3.Death at a Party
4.Brown One Day, Black the Next
5.Hotel Beau Regard
6.There's Nothing for Me to Forget
7.A New Job
8.A Day Drenched in Water
9.Flying Women
10.Under a Sunlit Sky
11.Mr Hat
12.Pushing the Limits
13.Visit to Lambarene
14.River
15.How Death Came into the World
16.The Schemer
17.The Shadow
18.The Blaze
19.The New World
20.A Desperately Wonderful Life
21.The Snake Man and the Lion Woman
22.The Field
23.Flesh and Bones
24.Yellow Eyes
25.The King Is Waiting
26.Yola
27.Who's That Brawling Anyway?
28.How to Dance the Makossa
29.Pimentos
30.The Farewell Dance
31.The Healer