The House of The Deaf Man

Description

Author:Peter Krištúfek Translated by Peter Sherwood and Julia Sherwood

Alfonz Trnovský, a general practitioner in the smalltown of Brezany, has spent his whole life pretending tobe radiantly happy and contented, and unburdened byhistory and all its abysses, twists and turns, while the realityis quite different. He refused to listen to his conscienceas the 20th century hurtled by: four political regimes,the Jewish Question, the political trials of the 1950s, thesecret police after 1968… and all the women he loved.But whose are the bones his son accidentally stumbles onburied in the garden?

The House of the Deaf Man takes the reader on a tour ofSlovak history from the 1930s to the 1990s. It is narratedby the doctor’s son, Adam, who comes to say goodbyeto the house from which he has never managed to breakfree. He tells the story of a father-son relationship andof surprising connections between the past and memory.

‘Peter] is purposefully making his way to the peak of contemporary Slovak
literature’ Knižná revue (The Book Review)

‘Excellently, adroitly written, Krištúfek’s House of the Deaf Man brings traumasout of concealment, and ultimately it is perhaps even healing’ .týždeň (Slovak weekly magazine)

Peter Krištúfek was born in 1973 and grew up in Bratislava, Slovakia. He has an MA in Film and Television Directing from the Academy of Performing Arts, Bratislava, and is an award-winning director. His writing has appeared in numerous Slovak and foreign anthologies, including the annual anthology, Best European Fiction (2010), and many Slovak newspapers and magazines. Peter is also publishing The Atlas of Forgetting, a large collection of documents he accumulated while writing his third novel, The House of the Deaf Man.