The Equestrienne

Karolina lives in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. To escape difficult home life, she spends time in a riding school and eventually becomes an equestrienne, a performer on a back of a horse. Like everything else after the Velvet Revolution, also Karolina’s life changes drastically.

We swapped our barbed wire cage for one made of gold.

Karolina’s coming-of-age story is quite unusual, sometimes even odd, with a touch of magical realism. There are quite a few content warnings: sexually related content, inappropriate teen behavior, and a brutal opening of the story. In short, Equestrienne is a very well-written novella that I enjoyed a lot.

 

Goodreads

 

Details:

• author: Uršula Kovalyk
  
• full title: The Equestrienne
  
• genre: literary fiction
  
• format/type: bookfiction
• topics: #comingofage
  
• publisher: Parthian Books
  
• publish date: 04 Apr 2022
  
• pages: 80
  

My Rating of the Book:

• content: 💙💙💙💙

About the Author: 

 

Uršuľa Kovalyk is a Slovak writer and playwright. She was born in 1969 in Kosice. She is best known for her novel The Equestrienne, which won the Bibliotéka Prize in 2013, and was also nominated for the Anasoft Award and the EBRD Book Prize.