Meet the author: Marek Šindelka at Passa Porta

Categories: Literature
Date: 24/10/2019
Time: 20 h 00 - 21 h 30
Location: Passa Porta
Links: iCal - Google Calendar

The Czech literary star Marek Šindelka had already taken part in the Passa Porta Festival in 2017. He is back in Brussels for a month to write his new novel and takes the opportunity to meet the public and present his novel Zůstaňte s námi , which has just been released in Dutch translation in the beautiful Moldaviet series of Voetnoot editions.

Dutch-speaking success

For Dutch-speaking readers, Marek Šindelka (1984) is far from unknown. His first novel translated in Dutch, Mapa Anny (Das Mag, 2016), was covered with rave reviews, and his captivating novel about the fate of the refugees, Únava materiálu (Das Mag, 2018), was sacred ‘book of the year “by Knack , winner of a Cutting Edge Award and nominated at Europese Literatuurprijs 2019.

Corporality and (m) communication

The long new title of the collection Zůstaňte s námi (2011), now translated into Dutch by Edgar de Bruin, describes with great originality a relationship that breaks because of a typically contemporary communication problem. The bodies reflect the soul movements of the characters, but these are hardly observed any more, despite the verbal exchanges.“In their case, the language has lost its communicative function, they have built a barrier of words around them that protects them fearfully from each other and they do not wish to exceed. […] That’s why my book is called Zůstaňte s námi, an ambiguous title. We need each other to see ourselves. Despite this, we get a distorted image from us and our relationship becomes an unhappy addiction relationship that can not bring anything good. “Do not leave us” is also the formula used by TV presenters to encourage viewers not to change channels, “ says Šindelka.