About a book
Unicorns
Original title: Jednorožce
Genre: novel
Slovak edition: ASPEKT
Foreign editions: Czech (HOST - vydavatelství 2022), Polish (Ha!art publishing house 2023), Hungarian (Womanpress 2024), Serbian (Prometej 2023)
CONTENT
The protagonists of Barbora Hrínová's short stories move in
a multicultural environment, experience the interest of potential
hetero- and homosexual partners, but it's never a good fit, so they usually remain alone.
It's not just a question of sexuality, but of an overall positioning in the current online world,
in which mythical unicorns have mutated into children's brightly colored plush Minions.
The author offers a picture of millennials marked by a greater
tolerance of different identities, a longer period of adolescence,
and an overall virtualization of life. They can't find themselves in
this or any other available real world.
The book won the highest Award in the prestigious ANASOFT LITERA competition.
REVIEWS
“Barbora Hrínová's eight short stories can be read individually, but together, thanks to the recurring motifs, they acquire a new dimension of meaning — a deep inner restlessness dampened by irony and self-irony, suggestiveness.
The author writes about contemporary topics, such as various forms of sexual orientation or expats, but she does not write about them primarily.”
Slovak Literary Information Center
“Hrínová energetically blurs the line of exclusion, empathetically calls for a reconsideration of senseless prejudices against different forms of nature and urges us to "listen to the sounds of the universe.“
Jílek Café
“Barbora Hrínová creates a very convincing literary space, which is an internal, introverted space, from which, like a fragile animal, she sticks out her antennae and perceives the world around her. A world that can be intolerant towards any differences, but also a world that is accepting, or in which these differences can recognize and meet each other.”
Mária Ferenčuhová, member of the jury of the literary competition Anasoft Litera 2021
“With the quality of her book debut, Barbora Hrínová confirmed her ability to write in a non-trendy way about trendy topics, openly about the body and sex, subdued and shy about feelings.”
Mgr.Tamara Janecová, PhD.
“Barbora Hrínová's unicorns are a rare phenomenon, especially for their intimate tuning. In each of the stories, the debutante opens the door to her inner world for the readers, and her view of the things around us is gentle and sensitive, but it does not lack humor or courage....
No matter how it turns out, Barbora Hrínová knows how to combine a cheerful outlook with a delicate sensitivity, in her stories the old world of parents and grandparents is combined with youth, and such a view will caress.”
Zora Handzová, Pravda SK
„Things that are invisible or often considered marginal and unimportant get central attention in Barbora Hrínová's book Jednorožce,“ said the committee. "Hrínová shows us that fragility, which we tend to overlook, can have value. The sensitivity in her short stories is not presented as a failure, but rather as a basic attribute of humanity. Hrínová writes about otherness; she does not, however, exoticise or exploit it, and that's how she makes it possible for us to accept different life-styles or identity searches.“
Statement of the Anasoft Litera Jury
EXTRACT
Saturn‘s Return
(extract from a short-story)
It used to be obvious that Sunday comes after Saturday but she has long been living in an indistinguishable flow of days in which each one is potentially a work day. Remember to honor every holiday, the heretical thought crosses her mind. In Mútna you can’t move a finger on a Sunday. Not to mention help anyone with a divorce.
She will spend tomorrow differently: sleep until ten and then call Vanda to go out. They will have a pleasant brunch. They will go see Klára. Hopefully she will have recovered and won’t throw anyone off the saddle. If it rains there is an interesting event she stumbled upon on the web – Bratislava Secret: Black Madonna. She will lift her spirits with her. If not in a mosque, how Kristína can do it in Dubai, then in a catholic shrine in Bratislava. Then they will go and have a glass of wine in an establishment with Vanda. She will announce to her that she has booked Paris.
She returns from the outing with an entire bottle of sacramental wine. It stands on the kitchen counter, already started. At eleven she knocks on my door. “Come in.” She leans against the doorframe with a glass of wine in hand. She has Winnie the Pooh pyjamas on and a joyful expression.
“Synaková said she’d pay.”
“Who is Synaková”
“One of those who owe us. Kuruc was unpleasant but mentioned some date. Horváth didn‘t pick up so I left a long message.”
Hair loosened from her ponytail is swirling around her head.
On Monday I don’t register at all when she came home. She must have closed the entrance door silently. She does not come out of her room until the evening. I am doubtful she is even there. At seven I can’t stand it anymore and have a smoke. Romana is sitting stiffly in the armchair in the cleaned up room.
“Want to go to the balcony?”
She shakes her head.
“Did something happen?”
She is silent for a long moment until she finally parts her lips.
“She fired me. Effective immediately”
The following days I don’t meet her around the flat at all. She doesn’t cook, doesn’t speak, doesn’t shower.
I am preparing tea in the kitchen when she suddenly exits the room. She stops in the middle of the room like a speaker at the Forum Romanum.
“Our grandparents survived the war, our parents the cold war. No need to make this a big issue. I sent out five CVs. One to Berlin.”
The following week, every time I silently pass through her room, she is sleeping. I don’t want to disturb her, I started smoking out my window. After a couple days I go in and take a peek anyway. I am starting to have concerns. She is lying on her side, lethargically observing me.
“Do you want the number for my psychologist?” I ask.
“Is that the only reason you leave the flat?”
I realize that it’s true.
“He has to be a wizard. I’ll try it.”
I don’t know if she contacted him. She disappeared somewhere for two hours. Maybe she just went to take out the trash to the other end of town.
An abrupt knocking on the door surprises me. I get a bit scared that in her absentmindedness she forgot to lock the door and some stranger came in. But it is her. Combed, nicely dressed, determined. She is holding an elegant suitcase on wheels. It occurs to me that she got a response from Berlin.
“Are you going to an interview?” Congratulations!”
“I am going home, to my parents. I don’t know for how long. Could you water the flowers for me in the meantime?”
With pleasure, I think to myself and water the flowers little by little each day. I am getting bolder little by little each day too. I move the riding pants and sit in her armchair. I lie down in her bed. On my back with outstretched arms I stare at the ceiling. The structure of the cracks on the wall is different than at my place. It looks like a nervous, fractured lightning bolt. I wonder if that affects her, like the lines on her palm.
I stop by the recess meant for her valuables. Next to the brooch there lies a slim photo album with family pictures.
Some of them are still black and white. Two girls. Probably with her sister. She’s sitting with similar looking boys on a sled. Those will be her brothers. They also appear on a bench by their house. The wedding picture of her mother and father, Mr. and Mrs. Olšovský. Romana‘s origin. As a two year old she is anxiously holding on to someone’s knee. Probably her mother’s or godmother’s. On a different picture she is a smiling, lanky teenager hugging her grandmother. A wrinkly old woman in a folk dress and a head scarf sits on a chair, a usual village granny. Romana is probably the first in her family with a university education. Or maybe her father is. To the groom on the photo I attribute the title of geography and gym teacher.
“The writer has to think about their character more than the character could itself” I think of the essays of Milan Kundera, water the heather and immediately feel less guilty.
In the train she stares at the landscape they are leaving behind. It reminds her how she is reversing in life too. She was never mindful of her trips to Mútne. Only the ones to Bratislava. Going after some goal. Registering to university, exams, graduation. Job interview, starting at the Doctor, where each case was a challenge. Keys for her first rented flat, the feeling of victory when she put down the boxes at Azalkova 8. Thus leaving the campus behind. Today’s journey is the proof that all previous journeys were useless. As if she was making her way up the climbing wall to a certain point and then let herself go. Her true direction is taking place on the line of Bratislava – Trnava – Leopoldov – Piešťany – and soon – Kraľovany, where her father will pick her up. Because not even a regional train goes to Mútne.
They will be silent all they way in his seventeen year old Felicia. Because her father will be too disappointed to ask his daughter anything. He cares about her coming home before Christmas but like this, mid November, that will be a disaster for him.
Website made by @monisrll © 2023