On the Threshold: Short Stories (The Slovak List)

On the Threshold: Short Stories (The Slovak List)

Stories that entwine the mundane with the mystical, written by a cult favorite Slovakian writer. An unhappily married woman is impregnated by her elderly neighbor who lives in a building across the street and with whom she has never had any physical contact. Just as his attention creates life within her, his own life waxes and wanes with her gaze and attention. A man finds himself trapped in a pub on a sweltering afternoon after refusing to buy a beer with his cigarettes. Guarded by a vigilante bartender and his beer-obsessed patrons, his every attempt at escape is foiled until their life-giving elixir, the beer, runs out. This collection introduces English-language readers to the work of Dušan Mitana, a cult figure in contemporary Central European literature. In Mitana’s stories, appearing in English for the first time, the rational and the irrational are indistinguishable. His tales infect a banal, quotidian realism with mystical and supernatural distortions. Tinged with Hitchcockian paranoia and full of unexpected turns, the seventeen stories collected here offer a glimpse into Mitana’s trademark absurdist style. “Dušan Mitana’s work belongs among those best books, which I have wanted to write.” ― Dušan Dušek “I don’t know why, but Dušan Mitana was for me always a very serious (and sober—in the good sense of the word!) author although he wished to appear as the greatest humorist. Whether he laughs at himself (paraphrasing the author he is against himself yet is not a solitary runner) the world, or at something? Or somebody? God? Krishna? Lucifer? Satan? And other divinities he laughs mainly at the reader (and with the reader) who believed him and was taken in. (Critics, don’t buzz about, control yourselves!) Because to read Mitana’s prose like Holy Writ—means literally and for writ—is not possible, it is just strictly forbidden!” ― Marta Soucková "Strange situations, homicidal tendencies, and ill-fated love affairs animate the stories in Slovak writer Mitana’s bold English-language debut. Mitana fearlessly explores death, obsession, and sexual desire, making the most of mundane scenarios to reveal the complexities of human nature. It’s a worthy introduction to a great talent." ― Publishers Weekly Dušan Mitana (1946–2019) worked for two of the most prominent literary journals in Czechoslovakia, Mladá tvorba and Romboid . His works, which include more than a dozen books of prose, two collections of poetry, and several scripts, span fifty years and have been translated and published in more than twenty countries. Magdalena Mullek  is an independent literary translator and scholar.