Bruckstein's two novellas, published for the first time in English, offer a fascinating depiction of rural life in the Carpathians around the time of the Second World War, tracing the chilling descent into disorder and fear of two cosmopolitan communities that had hitherto appeared to be havens of religious and racial acceptance, but which were in fact constructed on foundations of prejudice and discrimination. Bruckstein presents the effects of the Holocaust not only on the Jewish community, but also the wider Christian society. His novellas tell cautionary tales of how gradual changes that individually seem inconsequential can lead to catastrophic alterations in the very fabric of society which, by the time they are acknowledged, are irreversible. These stories serve as a warning that passivity and political apathy can sometimes be just as harmful as actions.
The End. And Again is a novel about war, romance and rock n roll. It takes us back to Ljubljana and the Balkans in late 1980s and early 1990s through the reminiscences of an embittered bureaucrat Peter, a corrupt manager Goran and eternal runaway Mary. After taking a fateful bus ride, Mary once fell in love with Denis, a passionate rock musician, but their love story was tragically cut short when she, a young missionary, was ordered to leave the country for violating the Mormon code, and Denis was cast from his peaceful life in Ljubljana, exiled and sent tumbling into the ravages of the Balkan war. The main characters memories of the years when their interests revolved more around their band, music and above all love than around the turbulent political situation that derailed their lives, intersect with those of Denis in the maelstrom of war. A lack of any meaningful resolution to their story haunts them all and forces them to search for a different end(ing). (And) Again.
In the northern Slovenian city of Murska Sobota stands the renowned Hotel Dobray, once the gathering place of townspeople of all nationalities and social strata who lived in this typical Pannonian panorama on the fringe of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Due to its historical and geographical particularities, the town had always been home to numerous ethnically and culturally mixed communities that gave it the charm and melos of Central-European identity. But now, in the thick of World War II, the town is occupied by the Hungarian army. Franz Schwartzs wife, Ellsie has for the past month been preparing their son Isaac, a gifted violinist, for his first solo concert, which is to take place at Hotel Dobray. Isaac is to perform on his bar mitzvah and his 13th birthday on April 26, 1944. When the German army marches into town and forces all Jews to display yellow stars on their clothes, Ellsie advises her husband that the family should flee the town and escape to Switzerland. Schwartz promises her he will obtain forged documents, but not before Isaac performs his concert at the hotel. A year later, in March 1945, Schwartz returns, on foot, from the concentration camp as one of the few survivors.
Clementine embarks on a trip down memory lane in a gold convertible, insearch of her Nightingale poet
The heroine of Dogs and Others is ahiled as the first openly lesbian character in modern Serbian literature, but she is so much more than that, as she encapsulates the Zeitgeist of her generation. Coming of age in 1970s Belgrade, then the capital city of thriving, socialist Yugoslavia, we follow Lida and the bohemian life she leads, made more complicated by the trials and tribulations of her eccentric family. The whole novel breathes with a raw sensibility so aptly captured in the voice of the narrator – a striking, rebellious, overtly feminist and somewhat neurotic young woman.
Doppelgänger consists of two stories that skillfully revisit the question of doubles (famously explored by Stevenson, Dostoyevsky and others), and how an individual is perpetually caught between their own beliefs and those imposed on them by society. Arthur and Isabella is a story of the relationship between two elderly people who meet on New Years Eve a romantic encounter which turns into a grotesque portrayal of the loneliness of old age. The second story Pupi a strange mirror of the first centres on the life of a man who ends up on the streets and associates only with streetsellers the rhinoceroses in the zoo. Together these tales crate the highly original atmosphere that Drndi is famous for in all her works.
It's Carnival time 2012, and the Slovenian city of Maribor is European Capital of Culture. In an attempt to maximize profit, local politicians and showman peddle every possible art form. Amidst the hype, dramatist Adam Bely and CubanAustrian journalist Rosa Portero pursue a secret mission: to track down and overthrow the sinister octopus of 13 selected persons that seems to be in control. On the way, they encounter a variety of important citizens, all entangled in a web of corruption and lies. In the tradition of Bulgakov, Gogol and Kafka Ales Steger lets the forces of good and evil collide in this grandiose literary thriller. This is a debut novel filled with striking personae, haunting images and a grotesque plot. It proves, in the end, to be a journey into the heart of a European darkness.
A world without truth would be immensely sad, states the magistrate in the murder trial of local boy, Janek. A young man with serious mental issues, Janek's strange 'chestnut crown' woven from the leaves of a supposedly sacred tree was found on the body of the farmer Geder; stabbed to death with a bread knife. Through a series of flashbacks during the interrogations, we learn of Janek's story: from the perversion of his relationship with his mother, to the frustrations of his love affair with Daria and his inability to complete his studies or free himself from the ghosts of this past. A Swarm of Dust is widely considered to be one of Flisar s finest works of fiction, questioning the very notion of objective truth and subverting the norms of JudeoChristian morality.