Author: Árpád Kollár
Original title: A völgy, írta Tárkony
Title in English: The Valley, by Tarragon
Publisher: Csimota
Year of publication: 2016
Number of pages: 84
Illustrations: Norbert Nagy
Rights sold: Croatian
Somewhere, there’s a valley, and in that valley there’s a village, and in that village lives Tarragon, the poet who doesn’t write. He’s in a rut. He’s bored. And that in itself may not sound like much of a subject for a book – especially not a children’s book. But that’s just where the magic happens, as endlessly entertaining tales emerge out of nothing. It’s like the best of the Czech New-Wave films, as told to children. For Tarragon the poet is surrounded by numerous friends who can cheer up even the worst, most uninspired day, with an imaginary football match or a trip to the line in the distance, or a hunt for the fearsome colour-craving snail.
Norbert Nagy returns to illustrate a text by Árpád Kollár, as the other half of a practiced authorial duo. His drawings, which employ just the right amount of both caricature and hyper-realism, serve to draw reader immediately into the mood of the melancholic and humorous stories.
