The Healer. Cet article n’est pas disponible.The Healer

Traditional African narrative forms combined with European modernism.

The stories comprising The Healer, Marek Vadas's first collection, which was originally published in 2006, are steeped in the culture, rituals, and traditions of Africa, blurring the boundaries between dream and reality and peopled with characters whose gender, shape, skin color or even memories may change at a stroke. Nevertheless, Vadas refuses to exoticize this world, and many of the stories, told in pared-down language, blend mythical elements with realistic depictions of harsh living conditions, economic deprivation, and colonial oppression. The narratives unfold from the perspective of their protagonists--children (often orphaned), and men struggling to make ends meet and trying in vain to resist the allure of strong women endowed with magic powers. As a Slovak writer focusing on the African continent, Vadas is a rare voice that helps to build bridges between very different cultures, and now his writing is introduced to the global anglophone readership.

Marek Vadas is an advisor to the king of Nyenjei, a small kingdom in Cameroon, and the author of several books, including the short story collections Black on Black, A Bad Neighborhood, and Six Foreigners.

Julia Sherwood is a translator from Slovak, Czech, Polish, Russian and German into English, as well as into Slovak. She co-curates the website SlovakLiterature.com and is the editor of Seagull Books' Slovak List. Now based in London, she was born and grew up in Bratislava.

Peter Sherwood is a translator, scholar, and retired professor of Hungarian Language and Culture. His translations from Hungarian include collections of essays and short stories, as well as several novels, including Krisztina Tóth's Barcode.