NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

My Kingdom is Dying captivates with its daring exploration of storytelling at the edge of meaning. Through a suspenseful and multi-layered narrative, the novel leads the reader through a labyrinth of fiction and metafiction, where reality and imagination blur. The protagonist, who has a writer’s block, finds himself in a mysterious clinic among literary giants, raising questions about the nature of creativity and the fading role of literature in the modern world. Flisar’s poetics favour depth over surface, experience over analysis, and ambiguity over certainty. This genre-defying novel, rich in intertextual references and philosophical reflection, becomes a story not only about fiction, but about the fictional nature of our lives. Its complex structure and literary courage make it a compelling nominee for the Dublin Literary Award.’ (Ljubljana City Library (Mestna knjižnica Ljubljana)

In Slovenia the novel was nominated for Kresnik award for best writen novel in 2020.
When the protagonist, a successful writer, experiences a creative block, he seeks refuge from a grim fate in the Swiss clinic Berghof. There, a host of prominent figures from the canon of world literature are already undergoing treatment — including Martin Amis, Graham Greene, Saul Bellow, and J. M. Coetzee. Yet questions soon arise: is the Berghof clinic truly what it purports to be?
My Kingdom Is Dying is not merely a hybrid of literary genres — combining elements of confession, detective fiction, memoir, and fictional biography — but rather a complex interplay of fiction and metafiction, literature and metaliterary reflection. The narrative unfolds with suspense, as uncanny events are seamlessly interwoven with contemplative insights and resonant philosophical meditations.
When one searches too fervently for the unifying thread of one’s life, one risks overlooking life itself — or, at the very least, a significant portion of it.
This novel speaks to you — to each of us. (Mariborska knjižnica)