BOY WITH A BLACK ROOSTER by Stefanie vor Schulte

Translated by Alexandra Roesch

Okay, be honest. Look at the picture on the cover and tell me… would you mess with that rooster? Because I’ll tell you something. That beast will peck out your soul. Which, I guess, makes it the ideal portent for what lies within the pages of Stefanie vor Schulte’s award-winning debut. Not since the Brothers Grimm died of the plague or whatever has there been such a clucking astonishing dark fairy tale.

Orphaned in a family massacre, little Martin swirls through the steaming dungheap of a medieval village with only his talking rooster - possibly the devil - to keep him company. Everyone hates him. Or is scared of him. They want to know why he’s still here when all the other children have disappeared. But Martin is a kind soul; too good for those around him. And so, after a… misunderstanding… he sets off on an adventure to rid the village and its surrounds of a dark curse (and malevolent ruler), and bring back the missing kids.

Full of grotesque baddies, bawdy humour, flourishes of surreal wonder and a damn cool sleep deprivation contest, Boy With a Black Rooster is fabulous, fabulist perfection.

Boy With a Black Rooster by Stefanie vor Schulte (Tr,. Alexandra Roesch)
Indigo Press, 2024
182 pages