Novel
Námestie svätej Alžbety
Not translated into English
Rudolf Jašík · 1958
Synopsis
In a town at the foot of a vine-covered hill, from summer to autumn 1941, Igor Hamar, eighteen, poor, who is caring for his gravely ill mother, loves Eva Weimannová, his childhood friend, the daughter of a small Jewish shopkeeper. They meet in the evenings in the church tower on Saint Elizabeth Square. The obligation for Jews to wear the yellow star comes between them, while the barber Flórik becomes a guard and an Aryanizer. To save Eva through baptism and marriage, Igor looks for the money the priest demands for the certificate.
Context
The novel appeared in Bratislava in 1958, in fifteen chapters with symbolic titles, under the motto “Love is immortal. It does not die. It only goes into the tomb.” Built on a ballad framework, it is regarded as the first Slovak novel devoted to the Jewish question under the Slovak State, whose everyday face it shows when the uprising alone occupied the narratives. It goes beyond the ideological interpretation of history that prevailed in war books and opens the way to the lyrical prose of Ladislav Ťažký and Vincent Šikula. Vladimír Bahna brought it to the screen in 1965.
Who it is for
A tragic and lyrical novel, accessible, which reads like a love ballad in the time of persecutions.
Prizes and reception
The best-known work of its author, reissued in 1960, 1962, 1969, 1982, 1986 and 2000.
Sources for this page 3
The pages consulted to check this page.