Monika Žagar's literary debut Dva brata, trije svetovi (Two Brothers, Three Worlds) was published in August 2015 by Mladinska knjiga, the largest Slovenian publisher, to critical and popular acclaim. It tells the story of the Žagar family which owned a large thriving timber industry in the interwar period with premises in Rakek and Markovec in Yugoslavia and in Trieste, Italy. The family wealth survived the brutal WWII occupation only to be nationalized in 1946 by the new communist government. The novel focuses on the pre- and post-war relationship between two brothers, the older Line (the author's uncle) and the younger Franci, her father. Their allegiance became strained by their opposing ideological convictions: Line became a member of the underground Communist party in the thirties while Franci was a dedicated manager of the family business. Their pact - that Line would join the Resistance while Franci would retain some semblance of normal business under the Italian and then the German occupation - broke after the war when Line became part of the new government elite while Franci was pushed to the social margins as "the bourgeois industrialist" and "the enemy of the state." The novel avoids third-person narration and instead gives voice to various protagonists by exploring the fateful events from individual perspectives. As one critic writes: Monika Žagar wrote the story of her family from the human viewpoint and created a novel about a certain period, convincingly etched into personal stories." (Monika Žagar je napisala zgodbo o svoji družini s človeške plati in ustvarila roman o nekem času, prepričljivo odtisnjenem v osebne zgodbe. Pisave)
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Monika Žagar's novel published
Monika Žagar's literary debut Dva brata, trije svetovi (Two Brothers, Three Worlds) was published in August 2015 by Mladinska knjiga, the largest Slovenian publisher, to critical and popular acclaim. It tells the story of the Žagar family which owned a large thriving timber industry in the interwar period with premises in Rakek and Markovec in Yugoslavia and in Trieste, Italy. The family wealth survived the brutal WWII occupation only to be nationalized in 1946 by the new communist government. The novel focuses on the pre- and post-war relationship between two brothers, the older Line (the author's uncle) and the younger Franci, her father. Their allegiance became strained by their opposing ideological convictions: Line became a member of the underground Communist party in the thirties while Franci was a dedicated manager of the family business. Their pact - that Line would join the Resistance while Franci would retain some semblance of normal business under the Italian and then the German occupation - broke after the war when Line became part of the new government elite while Franci was pushed to the social margins as "the bourgeois industrialist" and "the enemy of the state." The novel avoids third-person narration and instead gives voice to various protagonists by exploring the fateful events from individual perspectives. As one critic writes: Monika Žagar wrote the story of her family from the human viewpoint and created a novel about a certain period, convincingly etched into personal stories." (Monika Žagar je napisala zgodbo o svoji družini s človeške plati in ustvarila roman o nekem času, prepričljivo odtisnjenem v osebne zgodbe. Pisave)
