Samko Tále's Cemetery Book

Daniela Kapitáňová's debut Samko Tále's Cemetery Book, which was published in Slovakia in 2000 and came out in 2011 in English translation by Julia Sherwood, defies an easy label. One could call it the memoirs of an idiot, but that would not begin to describe everything going on in this unusual work.

As it is presented, Samko Tále's Cemetery Book is the unedited two-volume journal written by the almost-44-year-old Samko Tále, a physically and mentally disabled individual living in the small town of Komárno in southern Slovakia. He spends his days collecting cardboard and wheeling it to the local Recycling Center on his handcart. One day a local drunk and fortune teller, Gusto Rúhe, writes on the sidewalk that Samko "will write the Cemetery Book." What exactly the Cemetery Book is, no one knows, least of all our protagonist. But what is written must be the law, and Samko is not one to question or disobey it.

(from Magdalena Mullek's review for Asymptote)

Publisher

Number of pages

130

Language

English language

Year

2011

Book category

General Fiction

Original

Samko Tále: Kniha o cintoríne

Original language

Slovak language

Issue

1.

Published in

London

Country

United Kingdom

ISBN

978-0-9535878-9-6

Book cover

Hardcover

Supported by

LIC/SLOLIA

Translator