The Bonnet

A beautifully written and moving story about the power of tradition and the importance of women’s stories.

The Bonnet, the first work of prose by Slovak poet Katarína Kucbelová, defies easy pigeonholing: both political and personal, it is a work of literary reportage, a quest for one’s roots, a critical exploration of folk art and, not least, social commentary on the coexistence of the Slovak majority and the Roma minority, offering a nuanced and sympathetic look at the lives of Roma people in Slovakia, and raising important questions about the nature of prejudice and discrimination. Over two years, the author made regular visits to the remote village of Sumiac in Slovakia to learn the dying craft of bonnet making from one of its last practitioners, Il’ka, an elderly local woman who in the process became her mentor in more ways than one. Through the parallel stories of Il’ka and the narrator’s grandmother, The Bonnet also offers a subtly feminist reading of the position of women in rural Europe from the early twentieth century to the present day.

Katarína Kucbelová is one of the most acclaimed contemporary Slovak poets. She has published several collections that have been translated into numerous languages. In 2006 she founded Slovakia’s most prestigious literary award, the Anasoft Litera, and was its director until 2012. She lives in Bratislava. Julia Sherwood is a translator from several languages including Slovak, and cocurates the website SlovakLiterature.com. Peter Sherwood is a translator and scholar, who taught at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London.