A man wanders into an Amsterdam pub and memories start surfacing... an excerpt from the first English translation of this novel, shortlisted for Slovakia’s most prestigious literary award
By Peter Macsovszky and John Minahane for Translation Tuesdays by Asymptote, part of the Guardian Books Network
The action of the novel takes place in one day (as in Joyce’s Ulysses and Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway). The main character is Simon Blef, a man who has emigrated to Holland, where he met his future wife, a Mexican-Dutch girl named Estrella. As he waits for Estrella, who is returning from Spain, Simon wanders into the Amsterdam pubs and starts drinking. As time passes, all kinds of memories surface from the past. There is no striking action in the novel; it is rather an impressionistic reverie with glimpses of humour and a mordant commentary on the main character’s ambition to become a writer. This novel was shortlisted for Slovakia’s most prestigious literary award, Anasoft Litera Prize, in 2011.
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