Slovak Literature in English Translation

Iboja Wandall-Holm (1921) was born in Vrbové and grew up in Liptovský Mikuláš. At the age of 19, she fled to Hungary with her younger sister to escape deportation, but was caught and deported to Auschwitz. She survived the death march in 1945 but most of her family perished in the Holocaust. After the war she studied political economy in Prague, later moving with her Danish husband to Copenhagen, where she became a writer, poet, translator, and journalist. She also lived in Africa, Iran, USA, and Austria, where her husband worked. Since her debut in 1961 she has published several books in Danish and translated children’s books, poetry and fiction from Slovak, Czech, Polish, German and Hungarian. Her memoir, Morbærtræet (The Mulberry Tree) was published in 1991 to great acclaim. The expanded edition that appeared in 2000 under the title Farvel til århundredet, was named book of the year. Her own Slovak translation was published in 2001 and reprinted in 2016.