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2021 Longlist

A Chronicle of Forgetting

Translated from the Slovenian by Rawley Grau

ABOUT
THE BOOK

Every morning the memories are a little different. The world of Sebastijan Pregelj’s novel A Chronicle of Forgetting is governed by dementia. In his previous novels and stories Pregelj has taken us to incredible, fantastic worlds, to worlds of the past, and once even into space, but the most incredible world is the world hidden in the human brain. Here, he gives us a remarkable, deeply humanistic story about pondering life and looking for meaning, for that happiness which we do not know how to find in the privileged part of the world and which people from other continents would like to have, but most of all this is a novel about accepting the end of life. It speaks of last things with a light that inspires and awakens. Pregelj is a writer with a keen ear for a story, for structuring plot, for gradual intensification, and for unexpected, sometimes extremely minute, but never unimportant reversals. He confirms anew that he is in command of his craft and one of Slovenia’s finest writers.

 

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Sebastijan
Pregelj

Sebastijan Pregelj was born in Ljubljana in 1970 and studied history at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana. In the 1990s, he began writing short stories, which appeared in various literary magazines. In addition to four short story collections, he has published six novels: Leta milosti (Years of Mercy, 2004), Na terasi babilonskega stolpa (On the Terrace of the Tower of Babel, 2008), Mož, ki je jahal tigra (The Man Who Rode a Tiger, 2010), Pod srečno zvezdo (Under a Lucky Star, 2013), Kronika pozabljanja (A Chronicle of Forgetting, 2014), Vdih. Izdih. (Breathe In. Breathe Out, 2017), and, most recently, V Elvisovi sobi (Dear Ali. Dear Elvis, 2019). He also writes books for children. Four of his novels have been nominated for the Kresnik Award for Best Slovene Novel, and his stories have appeared in anthologies in German, Czech, Polish, and English. Three of his novels have been published by the Drava Verlag (Klagenfurt, Austria) in Erwin Köstler’s German translation: Auf der Terrasse des Turms von Babel (2013), Unter einem glücklichen Stern (2015), and Chronik des Vergessens (2017). He is co-author, with Gašper Troha, of the guide Ljubljana Literary Trail, which exists in both English and Slovene. Pregelj lives and works in Ljubljana and is a member of the Slovene Writers’ Association.

 

Sebastijan Pregelj was born in Ljubljana in 1970 and studied history at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana. In the 1990s, he began writing short stories, which appeared in various literary magazines. In addition to four short story collections, he has published six novels: Leta milosti (Years of Mercy, 2004), Na terasi babilonskega stolpa (On the Terrace of the Tower of Babel, 2008), Mož, ki je jahal tigra (The Man Who Rode a Tiger, 2010), Pod srečno zvezdo (Under a Lucky Star, 2013), Kronika pozabljanja (A Chronicle of Forgetting, 2014), Vdih. Izdih. (Breathe In. Breathe Out, 2017), and, most recently, V Elvisovi sobi (Dear Ali. Dear Elvis, 2019). He also writes books for children. Four of his novels have been nominated for the Kresnik Award for Best Slovene Novel, and his stories have appeared in anthologies in German, Czech, Polish, and English. Three of his novels have been published by the Drava Verlag (Klagenfurt, Austria) in Erwin Köstler’s German translation: Auf der Terrasse des Turms von Babel (2013), Unter einem glücklichen Stern (2015), and Chronik des Vergessens (2017). He is co-author, with Gašper Troha, of the guide Ljubljana Literary Trail, which exists in both English and Slovene. Pregelj lives and works in Ljubljana and is a member of the Slovene Writers’ Association.

 

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

The novel is a moving, well written – and translated – story about finding meaning and accepting the end of life, about losing memories and doing things worth remembering, about leaving something behind for others to find hope and/or comfort in. As it increasingly becomes the protagonist’s one true anchor in his diminishing sense of reality and self, the simple beauty of the world surrounding him is described in the novel’s most poetic language. Ljubljana City Library, Slovenia

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
30/12/2019
Country
Slovenia
Original Language
Slovenian
Publisher
Slovene Writers’ Association
Translator
Rawley Grau
Translation
Translated from the Slovenian by Rawley Grau

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