Chovanci (2026)

This novel is a fantastic allegory that its author calls a prison fairy tale. With witty exaggeration, linguistic inventiveness and satire, it portrays life behind bars from the perspective of animals. This allegorical fable explores the world of a womens prison, Meow Prison, through the stories of its animal inhabitants, chiefly cats, but also crows, dogs and rats. The main character is the free-spirited tomcat Don Koleone, who leads a gang in the prison yard. His life is disrupted by the arrival of Ira, a white crow who is naive, kind-hearted and deeply human, carrying with her both the imprint of freedom and a sense of vulnerability. The story also features anelka, a pedigree British cat who enters the prison in search of her arrested owner. Together with Ira and Don Koleone, she sets out on an apparently impossible mission to rescue a human being from prison. Their journey becomes a kind of metaphysical pilgrimage in which hints of Orwellian satire, childrens fairy tales and Russian grotesque come together.