This story is a novella rather than a book and as such it’s a quick read. It, however, packs a punch. I expected a horse girl story - I am a massive horse girl so this would have been welcome - and while the horses feature it’s not exactly that. In its essence “The Equestrienne” is a coming-of-age story and it’s dark, gritty and honest, often brutally so.

Although there is an overarching theme of horses and the protagonist is a child and young teenager, I don’t think this story is ideal for a younger pre-teen/early teen audience per se. It, of course, depends on the maturity of the individual but there is some brutal content, including sexually explicit content (consensual and non-consensual) and abuse.

[Mild spoilers ahead]

The protagonist may or may not also be involuntarily responsible for death of another person, even though this is left vague and the person in question probably had it coming.

The book contains implicit and at times more explicit critique of seemingly contradictory concepts such as the patriarchy and feminism, communism and capitalism. About the fall of the Soviet Union the protagonist remarks: “We swapped our barbed wire cage for one made of gold.”

The writing is erratic, often follows the narrator’s stream of consciousness and therefore is not always easy to follow. While I didn’t mind, I feel like this writing style is an acquired taste and will be off-putting to some potential readers. However, I personally liked the experience of reading a book with a unique voice and perspective and the various themes touched on made me think.

I was not a fan of the ending, it left me a bit unsatisfied - and was also slightly confusing, I admit I had to read it several times. Having said that, maybe it was also the perfect ending for the story that precedes it. While this may seem an odd and very vague remark in a book review, in which the writer is usually supposed to make up their mind and evaluate their experience with a book I have the suspicion that those that have already read this book will understand my feelings regarding the ending.

This is such a wonderful story. I just loved it from the very start. It was a wonderful storyline that I became so engrossed in it. It's such a powerful and emotive book looking at the struggles of living in a communist state. Also its a horse book eek I just love horse fiction and I had never read a book about horse vaulting before It's fascinating. I connected with the 2 main characters straight away and became so emotionally involved in them. This books target audience is new adults but it was so enjoyable I'm positive that every new adult and adults alike will just love it. The author created such a wonderful sense of atmosphere and tension that had my emotions on high alert at all times. I really did not want this book to end I was enjoying it that much. I definitely recommend this book to all horse fans out there and also fans who just love beautifully wrote stories packed full of culture. I will definitely be looking out for more books to read by this author as it was so amazing.

Only the highest praise goes out to the author, translaters and publishers for creating this epic story to help us understand the lives and struggles of those living under a communist rule. This book is a must read book a book of a lifetime, a book-et list book. And most importantly a book to read before you die.

The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/the-equestrienne-by-ursula-kovalyk-parthian-books-5-star either under my name or ladyreading365 or lady Reading365 or ladyc reading

3.5 stars

Kovalyk has an almost frantic style that hardly ever takes a breath. In this translation, it becomes a bit difficult to read. In a different work from a different translator, the punctuation choices tended to smooth that out a bit. Regardless, at its best, the prose is fast-paced and draws a reader along relentlessly.

There is also a magic realism element to this coming of age story that is quite captivating. I truly felt for this young girl.

Stylistically quirky, at times jarring, decidedly artistic, The Equestrienne is a mixed bag, but worth the read.

Thank you to Ursula Kovalyk, Julia & Peter Sherwood, Parthian Books, and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

The beginning is weird, least to say. The coming back to as early life as the one in one´s mother´s womb is not only weird but also bizarre. I didn't like it. I wasn´t sure what this story is supposed to be about.
Karolina tells the story of her family and life before and during the communist era while witnessing the collapse of the cruel regime. We see how three generations are deeply affected by the time they had to live in, not only financially, but mostly psychologically. And in the end, Karolina admits, the happiest memories she had are from the communist era, from the time about which you are not supposed to say one good word.
Coming from a post-communist country myself I read this novella as it was about my own family. Everything that the author said about changes after the collapse of the regime is true. I even felt a bit of nostalgia. The last pages are full of sorrow and disappointment and that´s exactly how my parents feel.
Still... the weird beginning and over sexualisation is too much for me, also unnecessary.

My thanks to Parthian Books and NetGalley for a review copy of this book.

The Equestrienne is a short, novella length work by Slovak writer Uršula Kovalyk, and translated by Julia and Peter Sherwood. The novel was the winner of the Bibliotéka Prize in 2013, and part of Parthian’s Parthia Europa Carnivale writing in translation project.

The Equestrienne opens with our narrator, Karolina, who is elderly, waiting for the ‘succour that death will bring’, but death having disappointed her, she takes matters into her own hands, choosing a rather brutal way to end her life, a means the significance of which only begins to make sense much later. As this ruthless scene plays out, Karolina begins to reminisce—going back all the way to her birth, no, in fact, even before, when she was still part of her mother’s body. Karolina is born into an all-woman household; her grandmother who looks after her for much of her early life (and at one point also presents her a small dagger for protection when needed), and her mother who as soon as she is able is happy to return to work as well as a succession of boyfriends. Their only relations mentioned are three old aunts whom they visit from time to time. Karolina and her family are living in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, and communism has taken much of what they had—her grandmother’s tavern and the aunts’ few treasures among them. They have a home to live in and work of course, but what they have lost is for no fault of theirs. After her grandmother’s passing, there is only Karolina and her mother.

Karolina is always uncomfortable when her mother brings her various boyfriends home, but when one encounter gets too close for bearing, she runs, only to find a vast paddock with a fat grey horse, and a girl with him. The girl is Romana, and the horse Sesil, and soon the three become friends. Romana, who has one shorter leg, has an abusive father, and for both girls Sesil and the riding school that he is part of becomes a place of solace, away from the unbearable situations they face at home. While initially not allowed to ride as part of the school, Karolina and Romana’s skills are noticed one day by Matilda, one of the riders/trainers who begins to train them for a trick-riding/vaulting team. Soon, they begin to see success, finding something they’re really good at. Alongside, through a slightly older boy Arpi, whom Karolina befriends, she begins to discover music (Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones and Dead Can Dance among them), and cigarettes, and using this music for her training rather than the prescribed or expected classics becomes a sort of rebellion.

But then the Velvet Revolution unfolds; communism has come to an end, and capitalism is back—words like competitiveness and market begin to be common. But the fall of communism does not end up translating as they expect, for the chances Karolina’s mother had thought would transpire don’t. And Karolina finds the riding school that was her one place of comfort, the place where she excelled, is beginning to change as well, and she and Romana may no longer have a place in it.

This turned out to be a bit of a mixed reading experience for me. I liked getting an insight into the Czechoslovak Republic both in and out of communism. It is interesting how each ideology is seen by its respective proponents as being the answer to all the problems plaguing the world (or something along those lines), yet both aren’t really able to resolve anything, or even if they do, neither is without its problems. While communism here may have deprived Karolina’s family unfairly, they are able to keep a roof over their heads, and Karolina and Romana—in their own ways misfits in society—are able to find a space to live out their dreams, explore their talents. When capitalism returns, the expected opportunities or reparations never really come, and for Karolina, what little she had (in a system she was vocal against) starts to slip away.

Karolina I found was an interesting character; she is indeed a rebel and has a voice—in school under the communist regime, she doesn’t shy away from speaking out about what she thinks has been unfair (much to her teacher’s annoyance, fear even); once she discovers the music of Pink Floyd and others through Arpi, that becomes all she listens to, so much so that she uses it to train at the riding school. Karolina also has a bit of the otherworldly about her, discovering the ability to be able to see other’s ‘souls’—their true natures—which seem to take one or the other peculiar from—even if her own seemingly eludes her, at least for a time. But her feelings, the way she experiences things are to an extent very primal.

Besides Karolina, we also have an interesting ensemble of other characters, whether it is Grandma, who is quite free with her swearing, or the three aunts, each with their individual personalities; Karolina’s mother, who might like having her string of boyfriends, but does care for Karolina; Romana, who has her own set of problems because of which the riding school is a solace to her as well, but whose fate after the capitalist system comes in takes her on a rather unexpected path; Matilda at the riding school who recognises the girls’ talent and helps them hone their skills, but whom the changes in the riding school affect very differently as well; or the very strange Arpi with his love of music but also a rather bizarre fetish.

The writing in some ways was an assault on the senses—blood, gore, snot, smoke, fear, disgust, danger, exhilaration—whether it is things that one ‘sees’ or ‘smells’ or feels, all of it is very raw as it comes across through Karolina’s voice. There are some moments of almost peace (like when Karolina comes across the paddock for the first time), and beauty even, like some descriptions of their vaulting performances. But the rawness, the frequent sexualisation of things was a bit much for my liking.

This rather melancholy novel deals with various themes—from ideology (or rather how it really turns out in practice), to friendships and family relationships (many troubled or tested in their own ways); dreams and their realisation, but also dreams crushed; opportunities found and lost—leaving one much to reflect on. An interesting, though tragic coming of age tale, I think I’d have liked this much better had it been approached a little differently.

3.5 stars

Ursula Kovalyk’s The Equestrienne is a prize winning Slovakian novella finally translated into English. Although original and memorable, I would not have finished it if it had not been so short. As it was, some of the subject matter caused me to read no more than twenty pages a day. For instance, I don’t care to read about a sixteen-year-old boy who gets a thrill from trading cassette tapes to a twelve-year-old girl in exchange for her worn panties. Perhaps that is one of the milder examples.

The story begins with an elderly woman’s chosen brutal means of suicide and then flashes back to her birth and childhood. For the most part, this is the story of Karolina, a pre-teen girl with a dysfunctional mother, who befriends Romana, a mildly handicapped girl with an abusive, alcoholic father. They meet at a riding stable run by a party member in communist Czechoslovakia. The girls bond over feeding carrots to an old horse retired from the show ring, and they secretly begin riding in the pasture. Their interest in the horse leads to an invitation to join a trick riding team. Sadly, their early competition becomes the only joyous part of young Karolina’s life.

Roughly three-fourths of the way through the novella, readers briefly witness the fall of communism and the rise of capitalism, something most Western readers would regard as a positive change. However, in one of the best paragraphs in the novel in which the author catalogs several specific changes in the country, she comments, “We swapped our barbed wire cage for one made of gold.” If Karolina’s life had not been bad enough already, it now goes downhill as the Comrade running the riding stable becomes a businessman and a new girl named Tamara joins the team.

The best part of The Equestrienne to me was Karolina’s ability to see someone else inside other people, whether Indian princess, Egyptian priest, warrior, or someone else. Those visions effectively reappear late in the novella.

Although the overall plot is fine and The Equestrienne has its high points, the author repeatedly steps much too low in terms of sexual content for my taste. Too much strikes me as inappropriate within the context of pre-teen and early teenage girls, and that element detracted from what I otherwise liked about the book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Parthian Books for an advance reader copy. I will not be reviewing this book on a publisher’s website.

<b>Read Around the World: Slovakia</b>

This was an odd little book about a girl during the time of Soviet rule in their country who falls in love with horses and to get away from her love-crazy mother, learns to become a trick rider and vaulter. It starts very sad and ends very sad and overall is a very weird little story.
That said, it wasn't a bad story - I read it over the course of an evening and it kept me engaged and there were parts that were really interesting. It was too short to really get invested in any of the characters [even the MC], but the the time you have with them all is crammed full of all the author could give you. Of all the recent Soviet-era books I have recently read [and disliked], this is by far the best and most readable.

I will say that I am learning I prefer the Russian classics over these newer reads - there is less language and vulgarity [oh my gosh there is so much vulgarity in these newer book, though I will say there is less here than the last one I read] and the writing is much more fluid and gorgeous and
I am drawn into the story much faster. I realize it is just my preference and I am glad to have the opportunity to learn what I really like and what I really do not like.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ursula Kovalyk, Julie and Peter Sherwood [Translators] and Parthain Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book begins at the end of the main character's story and most of the story flashes back to Karolina's childhood growing up in Soviet era Czechoslovakia. The book goes all the way back to her birth and what it felt like to get pushed out of her mother!

I've become less fond of books that dwell extensively on childhood. I don't need the details of toddlerhood for the main character if the character is well written- I can figure out what they are like if the author does their job without getting all the backstory. In this case, the author was raised by her mother and grandmother. It does help a bit to get the backstory because it relates to what it was like to grow up under the Soviets. The grandmother (who was Hungarian) had her family property taken by the Communists when she was young and she had to start over. The cynicism toward the government and the need to keep those feelings mostly to oneself comes out in the book, as does the arbitrary nature of how the government controls its people. These feelings seem to come out in Karolina's ambivalence toward school and making any sort of effort at anything.

Karolina's grandmother dies ( and she is very matter of fact about it although she did truly love her grandmother; this reminded me of how my family deals with sadness) and her mother turns to men and to the bottle. There's some weird stuff about how Karolina can see what I think were past lives of people she knows if she focuses the right way. It's a little weird and maybe a little racist but the author uses it as a shorthand to illustrate her characters' traits. Her mother, for example, is a rather lewd Indian princess.

Karolina drifts along until she randomly encounters a horse barn and a girl who becomes her friend. Romana has one leg that is shorter than the others and she shows Karolina how to care for the horses when the barn manager allows them to interact with the animals and work in the stables. The girls are tolerated as sort of unofficial mascots until one of the riders decides that they can be used as examples of the trick riding team that she wants to create. Romana and Karolina learn how to do tricks on horseback, using an older retired horse with a lovely temperament. This is the first time that Karolina has encountered discipline as a route to mastery and she takes to it wholeheartedly. Instead of getting by like her family has done, she works at achieving perfection. She becomes part of a team all striving towards the same goal.

Then the Velvet Revolution occurs and the country sheds the Communist order. Capitalism is a mixed bag. The culture of the team changes and becomes more cutthroat. The pace quickens and anything that doesn't measure up is cast aside. It's not that Karolina loved the old ways, but she can also see the drawbacks of the new system.

The story ends in Karolina's teenage years after conflict on the team comes to a head. The author glosses over the rest of Karolina's life, but it's clear that she never found anything to love or strive for again. She had to kill what she loved.

It's pretty depressing. I've read enough Eastern European authors to be familiar with their fatalistic, cynical and darkly humorous way of looking at the world- so be ready for that. There is an animal death too, if that is an issue for you like it is for me. It isn't done for shock value and makes sense as part of the story. I had a hard time attaching to Karolina just like she had a hard time attaching to anything and the story is tragic. So while this book is valuable as a window into a time and place that isn't as far removed as we would like to think (and that is by no means off the table as a possible future) it wasn't an enjoyable experience for me.

Holy shit this book absolutely wrecked me. I was not expecting to be sobbing at a story this morning, but I was. A deceptively simple tale but told with a lot of heart. The writing is superb and nothing is out of place or feels unnecessary. Kudos to the author and editor, as well as the translators. I now want to read everything Ursula Kovalyk has written.

This story follows the character Karolína as she comes of age in the 80s, in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. From the standpoint of historical fiction, it proved to be a very interesting glimpse into what life was like and although a short 80 page read it sure packs a punch.

This is not a book about horses; it is a book about escapism. The story is a dreamlike telling of the coming of age of a young girl in Czechoslovakia under the grips of communism. She is rejected at school, uncomfortable with her mother's many lovers, and otherwise alone in the world. When she meets Romana, a girl who is similarly isolated, they form a bond that helps them persist. They transform from stablehands to horseback performers, a pursuit which allows them to transcend their physical limits and the limits imposed by the totalitarian regime. This story, however, does not end happily - life is more complex than that. If you pick this up, be ready to be pulled through every emotion, good and bad, from the very first page.

As the protagonist faces death, her entire childhood runs through her memory, moving so quickly it’s hard to keep up.

What I loved:
I loved that the protagonist can see others’ inner beings. This added such a magical element to the book.
The fierce female characters! Men who?

What I didn’t love:
I was not a huge fan of the over-sexualized nature of the book. It gave me an icky feeling.

This book is brilliant and unlike anything I've read before. It's about Karolína, a young girl growing up in the east of the Czechoslovak republic and explores the relationships almost exclusively between women. Karolina adores her grandmother and feels affectionately towards her mother but is somewhat dissociated from her family. And thus her true life begins when she discovers a riding school and is coached into being one of the first equestrian acrobats. Really it's about women and friendship but also about hope and disillusionment and what it is to have a dream that you almost achieve only for it to fall flat at the last moment. It's a simple novella but Uršuľa Kovalyk teases and toys with the tension of the novel to bring the reader along in a shared ride of hope and disillusionment.

Translated from the Slovak by Julia and Peter Sherwood, this novella tells the story of Karolína coming of age during the last years of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in the 1980s. It brings the landscape of a small town in the easternmost part of Czechoslovakia where Karolína grew up first with a half-Hungarian grandmother who often curses but actually caring, and later with her own mother after the death of her grandmother, during which frequent visits by her mother’s boyfriends led little Karolína to escape her home to finally stumble in a riding school in the town. There, she befriended Romana, a limp girl whose one leg is shorter than the other, and Matilda, a rider and trainer who helped both Karolína and Romana to overcome their physical limitations.

The story is actually short, but it is packed with actions with fast-paced development. Uršuľa Kovalyk actually begins the story with the moment of Karolína being conceived inside her mom’s womb and her reluctance to be born into the world. The scene looks surreal in my imagination, which continues with the same tones as Karolína describes her childhood life. Life inside the totalitarian society of Czechoslovakia as Karolína describes it is full of limitations. She comes to hate school which force-fed opinions into her and objects to anything the teachers forced her to learn. She turned to ride as her solace, finding it fun to dance along with Sesil, her favourite horse in the riding school. There are occasions when Karolína describes her open rebellions to the system such as her playing Pink Floyd’s LPs during the riding session, as opposed to the government-approved music.

The use of mystical elements in this story is strong, such as Karolína’s eye ability to see the hidden spectre inside each person, which in turn shows her the nature of each person she encounters in life. Her mom, for example, is inhabited by an Indian princess who is always horny, and that’s why she has been taking so many different boyfriends home each day and night to the horror of little Karolína. Whereas, Romana is inhabited by a warrior with a spear, which brings ease to Karolína, to be honest with her and finds herself a person who could understand her as much as her grandmother did. I guess it’s also a subtle reference to the notion of identity in a totalitarian society, where people keep many things to themselves, never to expose their whole personalities for fear of persecution. Karolína’s ability and her consciousness since her birth are signifiers of her clairaudient ability, and also a short rebuke to the way the totalitarian society where she lives treats inanimate objects.

The Velvet Revolution in 1989 and the end of the communist rule in Czechoslovakia supposedly bring a fresh start to Karolína and Romana, especially since they are by nature the rebels of the previous system. But post-communist life was not easy for them. Everything becomes quantified. Money becomes important. The riding school which used to compete for the sake of competing now turns itself into a club attracting sponsors to finance the club in exchange for winning in competitions. The spectre inside each person disappears, with Karolína being left alone to cope up to the changing world where she no longer has any place or any saying to it.

Apart from the coming-of-age story, the novella uses rich vocabularies in its translated version, words that I rarely see in fiction. There are also some phrases in Hungarian, reflecting Karolína’s childhood upbringing among partly Hungarian community, something which I reckon might be a challenge in translating this novella as well. There are not many dialogues and the prose that streams continuously directly from Karolína’s mind in a matter-of-fact way is a joy to read (I’d like to say this novella is un-put-down-able, but perhaps that’s too much hyperbole). I guess everyone with unhappy childhood will be able to enjoy and relate to the story (too close to home). Many thanks to the Parthian Books for keeping publishing underrated European literature in English translation.

An old lady lies dying and remembers the highlight of her life.
The dying days of Communism in Czechoslovakia. A young, lonely and awkward girl finds herself when she starts to help out in a local stable. She finds a friend and an ability to perform amazing tricks.
The stable boss utilitarian Director becomes a harsh business man with the fall of Communism. Old friends turn against her and happiness, success and achievement is short.
Beautifully written and engrossing.

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

The Equestrienne is a short book (just under 100 pages) about young Karolina, coming of age during communist times. The story starts with a rather graphic and bizarre event describe the suicide of Karolina's grandmother. From there, we go back to the past and meet young, childlike Karolina describing what her life was like without really understanding the political implications of a totalitarian regime. As the book progresses and Karolina grows up, she finds refuge in a horse riding center where she discovers her passion for trick riding. Karolina is actually good and gets to compete at various places across the USSR, but with the revolution changing the political landscape, bringing down communism, so too, Karolina's life changes.

For a short story, this one covered quite a lot of topics. It's not a happy story. Actually, Karolina's life is quite a bleak one indeed. Yet somehow this didn't quite hit me in the emotions as much as I would have expected. Perhaps it was the writing style, especially in the beginning, that was a little monotonous, that made me unable to truly connect. All in all, The Equestrienne is an interesting coming of age, literary fiction novel of a young girl, set against the change of political regimes, painting a clear picture of how some promises, can turn out for the worse.

This was a short read that I really enjoyed, however it won't be for everybody. The book opens with a savage incident and there are other hardhitting themse in the book also that some readers may find hard to read. Howeer I thought it was well written wth good character development and a good if somewhat brutal storyline that is sharp. ferocious but also funny. I enjoyed it and would definitely read more by this author.

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.

This book will be available in April. Thanks to Parthian Books for the ARC and this opportunity! This is a voluntary review, and all opinions are my own.

The story starts with 80-years-old Karolina who is committing a suicide by forcing an untamed horse on to her.

Then we travel back in time when Karolina is remembering her birth, her childhood and funny grandmother who is originally from Hungary. I laughed almost at every page at the beginning as the story is told from a child point of view which is very innocent, not aware of any political situation which makes scenes to be very laughable.
To me personally, this part was the absolute best part of the book.

A majority of the story happening in Czechoslovakia in 1984 but prior to that, the author touched up on big history moments, e.g. Karolina’s grandmother and her sisters were brought up in a war followed up by life in totalism.

Once Karolina hit puberty the story is mainly about her new hobby found in the riding school at the edge of town – trick riding. She meets there Romana and Matilda who will become their coach. Sadly enough, the biggest success and the happiest memories Karolina lived through were during totality regime. The riding school is stripped down after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 and we can see its effects on lives of people.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Parthian Books for an electronic ARC in return for an honest review.

Short coming of age novel, set in communist Czechoslovakia in the 1980s. Well paced with a very unusual beginning. Well worth a read.