It’s not usual to bring to life a novella on a day when its already dead author would have celebrated her 126th birthday in the family circle. Despite the cold weather which accompanied December 8, there were people interested not only in a new, richly illustrated book, but also in those who contributed to making it possible. Ľudovít Petraško and Anton Medvec symbolically laid a wreath on o memorial plaque on a house where the writer was born.
The audience asked intriguing questions and the book editor explained, among other things, why Kočanová took an interest in the Slavs, their customs and traditions in the times of the Great Moravia, that is a historical topic which was extremely popular during prime time of the author’s production. The illustrator Jana Vojtková was engagingly talking about which passages of the novella appealed to her and what inspired her the most so that the book gained on a proper visual dimension. The discussion, which was enriched by a performance of local primary school students, was led by Anton Medvec, a village mayor, an expert on many unusual facts from the life of the author and her family. The publication of the book was supported by the Fund for the Art and the village of Kostoľany nad Hornádom, the birthplace of Mária Kočanová.
