Presentation 16 March 2018

TALES OF BEKNA AND TEKLA BY BONDO MATSABERIDZE

9:30 Location: Leipzig Familiencafé „homeLE", Georg-Schumann-Str. 130, 04155 Leipzig, Germany Organaizer: Georgian National Book Center, Drava Verlag Author: Bondo Matsaberidze
Moderators: Erika Hornbogner, Lozhe Wieser
Interpreter: Anastasia Kamarauli
Publisher: Drava Verlag, 2017
Partner: Konrad Adenauer Foundation Regional Program Political Dialogue in South Caucasus

The collection tells the fascinating adventures, heroic deeds and hunting stories of a boy called Bekna over a period of nine days. Bekna is a tiny boy with a brave heart, who longs to fight a giant at the very least. As for the girl Tekla, she could be called the little queen of the mirror who endows everyone with dreams, determination, the beauty of a butterfly and a bee’s sweet nectar. But the point of a fairy story is that a dream should become reality, and reality a dream. These two fairy stories and two heroes, Bekna and Tekla, are mirrors of the child’s spiritual world, bright and pure, perceptive and palpable. This makes both heroes enchanting and sympathetic. Who has not, as a child, dreamt of being a hero, of being extraordinary, of being beautiful? The fairy stories of Bekna the boy and Tekla the girl are exceptional in their warmth, humour and simplicity, and in the author’s knowledge of children’s psychology.