Silence of the Hippo

Poetic, somewhat absurd, and in some places dark – such are the short folktales of this book. Most of them come out of traditional African folklore though, in the rendition of children's storytellers, with a rather distinctive flavor.

The texts arrived in the hands of the Czech artist David Böhm, in the suitcase of his sister Terezie as a stack of student essays from a small Central African school. The imagination of the Black Continent unmercifully breaks down our European preconception of what a folktale is supposed to look like.

Somewhat shocking to children, it is a singularly refreshing comic strip for adults.