Portfolio Categories: Anna Bolavá – knihy

  • Going Under

    Going Under

    Going Under

    by Anna Bolavá

    Finalist for the 2018 Magnesia Litera Award for fiction

    Foreign Editions

    Germany

    Mitteldeutscher Verlag

    Bosnia

    Imprimatur

    As the first frosts settle in late November, a woman’s body is discovered in the marshes on the town’s outskirts—a place steeped in eerie silence and the stench of decay. Her corpse, half-sunken into the soft earth and veiled in fallen leaves, her long hair carefully combed, presents a macabre yet strangely beautiful sight. The dead woman is the wife of the local doctor. In a town where little ever happens, the discovery sends shockwaves through the community. A storm of speculation, rumours and whispered gossip begins to swirl. Nearly everyone knew the woman. The lives of several protagonists intertwine to form a vivid, realistic portrait of a small-town community. Everyday struggles and tangled relationships are hauntingly reflected in the surrounding nature—fog, a cold, flowing river, frost, and swampland—as the mundane blends with the mystical.


    Published in 2017 by Odeon Publishers in the Czech Republic.
    288 pages / 13,8 x 20,7 cm

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  • Into Darkness

    Into Darkness

    Into Darkness

    by Anna Bolavá

    Winner of the 2016 Magnesia Litera Award for fiction

    Foreign Editions

    Spain

    Báltica Editorial

    Germany

    Mitteldeutscher Verlag

    Slovenia

    KUD Police Dubove

    Russia

    Symposium

    Bosnia

    Imprimatur

    Bulgaria

    Perseus

    Poland

    Czeskie Klimaty

    Ukraine

    Znannia

    Syria

    Ninawa for Studies and Publishing/Distribution

    North Macedonia

    Makedonika Litera

    A lonely woman obsessively gathers healing herbs, her unusual passion gradually consuming her. Like a fever dream, the story unfolds in a poetic, evocative style. The heroine’s obsession draws her into a distorted inner world, where the scent and rustling of herb-filled sacks exert a fatal allure. Perhaps it is a family legacy that once claimed her grandmother, or perhaps it is simply the end of June, the busiest time of year for herb collectors. Beneath the slow, calm narration, a strange unease simmers. Anna Bolavá masterfully transforms an innocent pastime into a profound existential metaphor. With a refined style in which every word feels carefully chosen, the novel draws us deeper with each chapter—into the primal Earth, into the obsessive act of collecting healing herbs.


    Published in 2015 by Odeon Publishers in the Czech Republic.
    232 pages / 13,5 × 20,7 cm