Boat Number Five

In Bratislava, Slovakia, twelve-year-old Jarka is left to fend for herself in a post-communist concrete apartment-block jungle. She abducts twin babies and discovers herself while struggling to care for them, capturing the universal quest for genuine human relationships in post-communist Europe.

Format: Hardback
Length: 212 pages
Publication date: 28 January 2022
Publisher: Seagull Books London Ltd

The moving yet humorous story of a girl struggling to care for herself and others in post-communist Slovakia.

Emotionally neglected by her immature, promiscuous mother and made to care for her cantankerous dying grandmother, twelve-year-old Jarka is left to fend for herself in the social vacuum of a post-communist concrete apartment-block jungle in Bratislava, Slovakia. She spends her days roaming the streets and daydreaming in the only place she feels safe: a small garden inherited from her grandfather. One day, on her way to the garden, she stops at a suburban railway station and impulsively abducts twin babies. Jarka teeters on the edge of disaster, and while struggling to care for the babies, she discovers herself. With a vivid and unapologetic eye, Monika Kompaníková captures the universal quest for genuine human relationships amid the emptiness and ache of post-communist Europe.

Boat Number Five, which was adapted into an award-winning Slovak film, is the first of two books that launch Seagulls much-anticipated Slovak List.

Weight: 448g
Dimension: 236 x 160 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780857428899