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Silvester Lavrik

"Zu" by Silvester Lavrik is the third book by a foreign author in the Tymoteusz Karpowicz Foundation's publishing catalog, following "ende/koniec" by Elfriede Jelinek and "Periphery" by Pablo Garcia Casado.

The extraordinary novel by the Slovak author was translated by Jacek Bierut. An outstanding pianist, beautiful and blind, the protagonist of Silvester Lavrik's debut novel, and the first published in Polish, is a dazzling guide through contemporary Slovakia and its recent history. "Zu" is simultaneously a crime novel, a romance, a political and social novel, and a family saga, but above all, a dynamic and moving novel about exclusion. Lavrik created a very interesting narrative technique, utilizing the possibilities of film, theater, and visual arts. From many scenes and vignettes, often spot-lit, he constructed a complete whole. Slovakia shines here in the sun or under a microscope. It speaks in many registers of language. It is accused, yet full of charm.

"Zu" is a novel about a bad world that nonetheless offers hope.

Silvester Lavrik (born 1964): writer, poet, screenwriter, playwright, theater and film director, radio play director.

Author of several novels, most recently "Zu" (2011) and "Naivne modlitby" (2013), and over 30 plays, published and staged in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia, France, Hungary, the USA, Germany, and Finland. Winner of the Literary Fund Award, Anasoft Litera, Perokresby, and the Minister of Culture Award. He lives in Bratislava.

The Tymoteusz Karpowicz Foundation for Culture and Education thanks the Slovak Centre for Information on Literature for financial support for the translation of the novel "Zu" by Slovak prose writer Silvester Lavrik into Polish. The support was granted under the SLOLIA program.

The translation was done by Jacek Bierut. The book was published in the Tajne Komplety series by the Foundation.