Ivana Dobrakovová

WINNER

Slovakia-Ivana Dobrakovová

Biography

Ivana Dobrakovová is a Slovak writer and translator based in Turin. Her literary debut, a collection of short stories entitled Prvá smrť v rodine / First Death in the Family (2009), was shortlisted for the Anasoft Litera prize and won a Ján Johanides Award in the category Best Fiction by a Young Writer. Her second novel, Bellevue (2010), also nominated for the Anasoft Litera, portrays the experience of a young Slovak woman who has a nervous breakdown after taking a summer job in an international youth camp at a centre for disabled people near Marseille. Dobrakovová’s third book, the short story collection Toxo (2013), was shortlisted for the Anasoft Litera in 2014, and her latest book, Matky a kamionisti / Mothers and Lorry Drivers (2018) has also been nominated for the prize.

Nominated book : Matky a kamionisti

Summary

Set in the streets of Bratislava and Turin, the book comprises the interlinked stories of five women – three Slovaks and two Italians – that complement, blend into and contradict, one another, taking place in the women’s bodies and their relationships, on the internet, in a riding school and in the Vanchiglia district of Turin but, first and foremost, inside their heads. Women’s relationships with their mothers and lorry drivers, some virtual, some all too real, and some non-existent.

Slovakia

Excerpts

Related publications

Various authors

Special publications
2023

Various authors

Anthology
2019