Marek Vadas: Evil is not a question of mental deviations

 – Slovakia

Marek Vadas (* 1971) studied aesthetics and Slovakian language and literature at Faculty of Arts of Comenius University Bratislava. He travelled to Cameroon thirteen times, and he serves as the king’s advisor in the small kingdom of Nyengei.

In 1994 he debuted with his short stories collection Malý roman (A Small Novel), for which he received the Literary Fund of Slovakia award. In 2003 he published another collection called Prečo sa smrtka smeje (Why Is the Death Laughing). For his book Rozprávky z čiernej Afriky (Fairytales from the Black Africa, 2005) he received the Bibiana Award for the Best Children’s Book. Vadas has received Anasoft Litera award for his short story collection Liečiteľ (Healer, 2006). He published another collection in 2013 – Čierne na čiernom. In 2016 he published a book for children Útek (Running Away) and in 2018 a book Zlá štvrť (Bad Neighbourhood), which placed in the top ten of Anasoft Litera award in 2019. His style is influenced by the African narrative style, which mixes reality with fantasy, magic and black humour, absurdity with dark existential subtones. In 2021 he published book called Šesť cudzincov (Six Strangers) with themes of anti-Roma pogrom in a small village in western Slovakia in 1928; he was nominated for Anasoft Litera award for this book. His books were also published in the UK, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia, Italy, Spain, Brazil, China, South Korea, Ukraine and France.