Seeing People Off Paperback by Jana Benová

Product Details

• Publisher: Two Dollar Radio (2017-05-16)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 142 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781937512590
• Item Weight: 170.1 grams
• Dimensions: 19.05 x 14.22 x 0.91 cm

There is a liveliness and effervescence to Jana Beňová’s prose that is magnetic. Whether addressing the loneliness of relationships or the effectiveness of rat poison, her voice and observations call to mind the verve and sophistication of Renata Adler or Rosalyn Drexler, while remaining utterly singular.

Seeing People Off follows Elza and Ian, a young couple living in a humongous apartment complex outside Bratislava where the walls play music and talk, and time is immaterial.

Drawing on her memories, everyday interactions, observations of post-socialist realities, and Elza’s attraction to actor, Kalisto Tanzi, Seeing People Off is a kaleidoscopic, poetic, and deeply funny portrait of a relationship.

About the Author

Jana Beňová is one of the most acclaimed Slovak authors, and winner of the European Union Prize for Literature. She is a poet and novelist, author of the novels Seeing People Off, Away! Away!, Parker, and Honeymoon, as well as three collections of poems. Though her work has been widely translated throughout Europe, Seeing People Off was her first book to be translated to English.

Janet Livingstone was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and ventured to Czechoslovakia just after the 1989 Velvet Revolution. Among her full-length book translations are Master your Stage Fright by Slovak master violinist, Bohdan Warchal and Piata loď (Boat Number Five) by novelist Monika Kompaníková, which was one of three finalists for the EBRD Literature Prize 2022, one of the few international literature prizes which recognizes both author and translator equallly. In addition to Jana Beňová, her current translation projects include the novels The Best of All Worlds by Slovak-Swiss author Irena Brežná and The Arab World—Another Planet? by Emire Khidayer. Janet lives in Seattle with her two children.