Ingeborg Arvola: Buffy Berg is talented – Autobiography* (Cerkabella Könyvkiadó 2023)
Many thanks to Cerkabella Könyvkiadó for sending me the book!
Buffy Berg is very poor. A poor girl in the rich Norway’s even richer capital. With her younger brother and her unemployed mother, they manage their lives from one day to the next, but they do not feel ashamed. Ever since Buffy’s father left them, there have been only the three of them and they love each other very much. Social democracy takes care of them (if not the family). Bobby, Buffy’s brother, is talented at math and chess. Up until now, Buffy was only good at breaking the rules, but now she wants to show that she is also talented in something, and she has the opportunity to do so on the free ski course. However, in order to continue her training even after the course, she needs money. Lots of money.
The greatness of the novel lies in the fact that it can present serious and often sad topics with humor. Buffy and her family are lucky (yes, lucky, even more than her richer classmates) because they are always there for each other. The story also provides a good example of how the equalization of social inequalities and the opportunity for disadvantaged people to break through can be found in using their talents in sports or learning. The story is told from Buffy’s perspective and narration, as they are given the task of writing their autobiographies at school. By the end of the book, we can say that Buffy Berg is indeed talented.
The Norwegian writer Ingeborg Arvola has already published several novels, but with this book she won the prize for the best children’s book of the Norwegian Ministry of Culture in 2019. It can be read in Hungarian in the interpretation of Eszter Metzing (illustrator) and Bence Patat (translator).
*my translation