Newcomers: Book One

Book One

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Pub Date 24 May 2016 | Archive Date 14 Mar 2016

Description

The first volume of this three-part autobiographical series begins in 1938 with the expulsion of the Kovacic family from their home of Switzerland, eventually leading to their settlement in the father's home country of Slovenia. Narrated by Kovacic as a ten-year-old boy, he describes his family's journey with uncanny naiveté. Before leaving their home, he imagines his father's home country as something beautiful out of a fairytale, but as they make their way toward exile, he and his family realize that any attempt to make a home in Slovenia will be in vain. Confronted by misery, hunger, and hostility, the young boy refuses to learn Slovenian and falls silent, his surroundings becoming a social, cultural and mental abyss. 

Kovačič meticulously, boldly, and sincerely portrays the objective, everyday world; the style is clear and direct. Told from the point of view of a child, one memory is interrupted by fragments and visions of another. Some are innocent and tender, while others are miserable and ruthless, resulting in a profound and heart-wrenching description of a period torn apart by conflict, reflected in the author's powerful and innovative command of language.

The first volume of this three-part autobiographical series begins in 1938 with the expulsion of the Kovacic family from their home of Switzerland, eventually leading to their settlement in the...


Advance Praise

"Kovacic impressively catches the mood of the early years of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The volumes are masterpieces. They are bitter, but grippingly intense in their description... Newcomers is a mnemonic sleight of hand of botanical exactitude, a weighty historical document whose significance will only grow." --Sign and Sight

"Epic and panoramic... Newcomers turns stereotypes on their heads, as novels of the century should do--stereotypes such as the dignity of rural poverty, the unifying sanctity of the Slovenian language, and the noble heroism of resistance." --Erica Johnson Debeljak, Context

"One of the major Slovenian prose writers of the last sixty years." --Words Without Borders

"Kovacic impressively catches the mood of the early years of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The volumes are masterpieces. They are bitter, but grippingly intense in their...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780914671336
PRICE $18.00 (USD)

Average rating from 4 members


Featured Reviews

Lojze Kovacic is one of Slovenia’s most acclaimed writers and The Newcomers, his autobiographical trilogy, one of the most important Slovenian works of the 20th century, being voted the “Slovenian Novel of the Century” by literary critics. So this English translation is to be welcomed, and indeed I did enjoy it, even though I found it quite challenging at times. It’s the sort of book that presupposes some background knowledge of the politics and social conditions of the time, and I had to do some research to fully understand what was going on. It’s based on the author’s own experiences when his family were forcibly returned to their Slovenian homeland in 1938 from Switzerland, where they lived in fairly affluent circumstances. Back on the father’s birthplace, things are a lot more primitive and the family have to cope with some very harsh conditions and dispiriting poverty. The opening scene of the novel when the family arrive in darkness and mud through the forbidding forests when no one meets them and when they do arrive at the family home face a hostile reception is chilling indeed. We see it all through the eyes of the youngest child of the family, and life is miserable in the extreme. Eventually the family are able to move to Ljubljana but life is little better there. This first volume ends with the arrival of Mussolini’s troops and the beginning of a period of occupation. Grim indeed. I found the writing atmospheric and the nightmarish quality of the family’s existence, where they meet only prejudice and hostility from those around them is vividly conveyed. I look forward to reading the next 2 volumes at some point.

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