God's Zoo captures the brutality of the Second World War in Eastern Europe, told through the eyes of young Fenix, a boy who lives in the small Hungarian-Czechoslovak city of Ipolyság. Fenix lives in a loveless world, abused by his cold, materialistic mother, and neglected by his often absent father. He seeks refuge in the care of Judit, a young woman who works as a nanny and servant in the family home. Judit and Fenix form a deep and complex bond that is at once familial and erotic, embodying friendship, kinship, motherhood, romantic love, and sexuality. Together, they bear witness to the city's successive occupation first by troops from Hungary, followed by the German army, and, finally, the Russians. As the devastating events of the war unfold around them, their love perseveres and grows stronger--until its surprising end.

Pablo Urbanyi is a prolific and acclaimed Argentinean-Canadian writer. He immigrated to Canada in 1977 due to political chaos in Argentina. He taught Spanish at the University of Ottawa while pursuing his career as a writer. Although he writes exclusively in Spanish, his books have been translated to English, French, and Hungarian. In 2004, Urbanyi received the Latin American Achievement Award for literary expression. Silver was a finalist for the Argentinean Premio Planeta literary award in 1993.

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NATALIA HERO is a Montreal-based writer and literary translator. She holds a B.A. in English and Spanish literature from Concordia University and an M.A. in literary translation from the University of Ottawa. You can read her short fiction in places like Peach Mag, Shabby Doll House, Cosmonauts Avenue, and The Temz Review. She translates works from French and Spanish into English. Her debut novella, Hum, was published in 2018 by Metatron Press.

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Eroticism permeates the narrative, fleetingly yet profoundly, and the nimbus of poetry. God’s Zoo is ultimately a beautiful coming-of-age love story, one written in a deeply personal style (is it even possible to write otherwise?), but in which the reader may nevertheless find a sense of familiarity.

Caroline De Liever

The challenge, taken up here with fervent nostalgia, is to blend a satirical, ironic tone with a childish depiction of events, an irony that confronts the figures of oppression, whether Communist or Nazi, and the adult world. The result is a lucid phantasmagoria: onboard his electric train, Fenix recounts the tragedies that, one after another, carry away his loved ones. Like many writers, recounting the events of his life allows him to shed its cruelties … As Baudelaire once wrote: “Genius is childhood rediscovered by an act of will.”

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