Homunculus

Aleksandar Prokopiev

Translated by Will Firth

Istros Books

Paperback

140pp

ISBN: 9781908236234

Fiction

Publication date: 1 May 2015

£9.99

BUY NOW

Homunculus is a collection of sixteen ‘fairy tales for adults’ with something for everyreader. The author has largely retained the classical fairy-tale structure with its elements ofsurprise and the constant intertwining of the real and unreal, but he transcends the sugarsweetendings we are familiar with.

Along with typical fairy-tale features like the interplay of humans and animals, he presentsus with a wide range of more mature themes– the erotic, the tragic, the absurd – set amidstdichotomies on an adult wavelength: mythicalvs. urban, banality vs. wisdom, as well as issuesof guilt and longing.

Some of the stories are related to existinginternationally known fairy tales such as ‘TomThumb’, where the main character struggleswith an oedipal bond with his mother, or ‘The Huntsman’, told from the perspective of thehunter sent out to kill Snow White. Others go back to Macedonian folk roots or have beenfreely composed by Prokopiev himself, but all of them are rendered with humour, skill and anoticeable love of life.