The Shy House

Barbora Hrínová’s first novel, The Shy House, will captivate readers with its delicacy and humor. It focuses on a nuclear family: Ambróz, a kind, aging piano teacher, collector of poems, and dog lover whose eccentric habits might at first glance seem incompatible with today’s fast-paced world and its craving for change; his daughter Naďa, a thirty-something professional still living with her parents; and his wife, Silvia. The narrative perspective shifts between the three characters and an omniscient narrator, while the novel’s unconventional form seamlessly blends straightforward narration with the characters’ reminiscences, excerpts from diaries and quotations from poetry. The result is a rich, tender and deeply human portrayal of three very different individuals living their ordinary lives in present-day Bratislava.

Published in 2025 by Artforum Publishing in Slovakia.
248 pages / 14 x 20 cm

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