Tulák/Čavargoš (The Tramp)

The Tramp is a mongrel. He won’t take orders from anyone, but he is smart and has a good heart. He tells his little friend Míša about his travelling adventures, which took him from his birthplace in a farm to a Romani settlement or a circus. It was the Roma’s village where he felt most at home, perhaps because he is in so many ways like them. His insightful conversations with Binda the she-dog, Cyril the pigeon, and Beži the goat have a lot to say about both animals and people. This modern classic in Romani and Czech written by the icon of Romani writing Tera Fabiánová speaks to both children and their parents, celebrating courage, ingenuity, freedom, and, last but not least, sympathy for the fellow man.

Tera Fabiánová (1930–2007) was among the first Roma in the Czech Republic to have started writing in the 1970s. She was born in a settlement in South-West Slovakia and only attended school for three years because of the outbreak of war. She worked hard her whole life, reading a lot and observing the world around her. She had a colourful but not always happy life. She served in Jewish families, worked in farming, on construction sites and in a pub, cleaned offices, worked as a secretary at the Hungarian embassy, and earned her living as a crane operator for thirty-five years. Among the Roma, where men usually have the final say, she championed women's right to personal freedom and happiness. With her poems and short stories, which are wise yet subtle and sensitive, she inspired many other Roma to write and have the courage to stand up for themselves.

Translated from Romani by Milena Hübschmannová and illustrated by Magdalena Rutová, the winner of the Czech Grand Design award for best illustrator of the year 2023.

This book has been published thanks to the kind financial support of the Government Office of the Czech Republic and Bader Philanthropies, Inc.