Does dreaming always make us happy? Or when reality grows painful, do we risk building an alternate world to escape into? This is one of the questions at the heart of *The Kiosk* (Jaca Book 2019, translated by Alba Zara), the vibrant and inventive story by Anete Melece about Olga, an overweight newsstand clerk whose life has become her prison.
For years, Olga has lived inside her kiosk, surrounded by newspapers, magazines, lottery tickets, candies, and soft drinks—so much so that she has grown too large to leave. Through her work, she remains connected to the outside world: the man who jogs past, the mother seeking the same lollipop to quiet her crying daughter, the woman unlucky in love hunting for advice in glossy magazines, the man who finds solace in lottery tickets. Olga listens readily and offers a kind word to anyone in need. But at night, after the kiosk closes—and she sleeps there, having eaten so many sweets that the place has become her entire world—sadness sets in. Trapped inside, she falls asleep turning pages of travel magazines, consoling herself with images of romantic sunsets. Then one day a small accident happens. To her own surprise, Olga finds herself swept up by life and carried toward something new. The book is a story about broken cages, traps springing open, wounded people ready to begin again.
Winner of the illustrated book category at the 2020 Orbil Prize (awarded by the Independent Children's Bookstores Association), *The Kiosk* grew from the animated short film of the same name, which won numerous awards worldwide. Anete Melece, a young Latvian artist, made the film in 2013—and in doing so, showed a remarkable ability to move between different forms of expression.
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