About a book
Jozef
Heriban
CONTENT
In his free time, Michal Kahn dances Argentine tango, sells antiques at castle Červený Kamen and writes his debut novel in the form of diary entries. Although he fights it, deep down he is a latent racist. However, his life changes completely when he accommodates a married refugee couple with two small children in the garage of his house...
In the novel Garage Libertango, the author returns to 2015, when hundreds of thousands of modern-day nomads appeared at railway stations in Europe. The story depicts in a tragicomic style the dramatic fate of the Afghan Hosseini family, which is trying to realize its dream of freedom and a harmonious life.
In a parallel line, the novel captures the community of Argentine tango dancers and their desire to find the embrace of a loved one in a crumbling world.
REVIEWS
“We don't invent romantic stories, but we hunt for them in life. Jozef Heriban is one of those writers who tell disturbing stories about the fact that sometimes even that hope is false. Just when things are looking good with people, when the fire on the floor is roaring and the cosmic forces are dancing to the rhythm of the tango, suddenly the music ends and you must return to earth from dance, hope and joy. And to Slovakia.”
Martin Kasarda, SME
EXTRACT
We lay on the wooden floor in the embryonic position with black scarves as blindfolds. Music was playing in the ballroom. It was a beautiful slow tango. Maybe Gurevitsch's Lovers in Paris. I don't remember anymore. Rodolfo asked us to motion capture our birth. We were supposed to imagine that we had just become part of the infinite, still changing cosmic motion. A small grain of sand in the desert. The last one from a crowd of several billion pilgrims…
In the dark, with hands outstretched in front of us, groping, we moved in the limited space of the hall. Everyone was looking for their dance partner. Men, women, heterosexuals, bisexuals, gays, lesbians. Just touches and smells. The vibration of future affection. When we approached someone, we danced together for a while and decided whether to stay in the embrace or continue in the search...
Back then, in a small house in a suburb of Buenos Aires, I experienced for the first time in my life the feeling which is described by the masters of the Argentine tango. A common breathing in. A common breathing out. Connection via the third eye. The man leads and the woman follows him. A thought that turns into a graceful movement of the dancing couples. Ocho atras, Gancho and Sakada. Flight through the astrals in an intimate embrace.
I remembered the story Rodolfo told us before we left for Europe.
"Once upon a time, on Olympus, the gods competed to see who would discover the most perfect form on earth. For a long time, no one could figure it out. Once one of them showed to the others a beautiful metal ball. The other gods had to admit that the glittering ball was the greatest perfection they could ever see. Every point on its surface was equidistant from its centre. However, one of the gods, out of jealousy, cut the ball in two with a fiery sword. From that moment for ages, two split hemispheres fly through the universe looking for its other half. Professor Dinzel stroked his grey beard and finished the story: “But one day they will meet in the exact at a defined time, in a precisely defined space, at a precisely defined point, they will face each other, feel each other and will start dancing the Argentine tango in their embrace."
Words are from God and closest to God is the music. Music that turns into graceful movement. Tangueros. A man must learn to lead, and a woman must learn to follow. Lead and follow. Thinking about the other person. Feeling his movement. Suppressing our ego. Staying with the other one, even when he is not doing well. A man creates space for a woman, and she returns back to him everything a hundredfold. Unconditional love...
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