Boat Number Five

Twelve-year-old Jarka lives in a concrete apartment-block district of Bratislava, Slovakia, in the emptiness left behind by the end of communism. Her immature, promiscuous mother neglects her emotionally, and she is made to look after her bad-tempered, dying grandmother. Mostly left to fend for herself, she wanders the streets and daydreams.

The one place where she feels safe is a small garden she inherited from her grandfather. One day, on the way there, she stops at a suburban railway station and on impulse abducts twin babies. As she struggles to care for them, Jarka teeters on the edge of disaster, and in the process she comes to know herself.

Monika Kompaníková writes with a vivid, unapologetic eye about the search for real human connection amid the ache of post-communist Europe. Boat Number Five was adapted into an award-winning Slovak film, and it is one of the first two books in Seagull's Slovak List.