Monika Kompaníková: Changing Words, Searching for Order

Born in 1979 in Považská Bystrica, Monika Kompaníková studied graphics and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. She is the author of the novels Miesto pro samotu [A Place for Solitude] (2003), Biele miesta [White Places] (2006), Piata loď [The Fifth Ship] (2010, made into a film in 2016), Hlbokomorské rozprávky [Tales from the Deep Sea] (2013) and Na sútoku [Where the Rivers Meet] (2016).

‘Writing is fun,’ she says. ‘It almost feels as if it’s something you have to do, like singing in the shower. I especially like searching for the right words and placing them in the correct order so that they have the colour they ought to; and constructing sentences. I like the fact that my characters can afford to say and do things I myself would never dare, and that they can experience things that are unreachable for me.’