Drago Jančar
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Meet the author
The meetings with writers at Passa Porta, prepared with passion, courage and thoroughness, are more than simply the presentation of literary works. We seek to achieve a genuine connection between writer and reader, and among readers themselves.
Go to overviewDrago Jančar’s status is inversely proportional to the size of his homeland: a small country in the Balkans for a big name in literature. The compelling war novel In ljubezen tudi (And Love Itself – English translation forthcoming) is his eleventh. In it, the award-winning master storyteller juxtaposes violence, the lust for power and decay of human dignity with love and the willpower and courage to stand up for it.
About In ljubezen tudi (And Love Itself – English translation forthcoming)
Maribor, 1941. The picturesque Slovenian town has fallen into German hands. Sonja comes across an old acquaintance: Ludek, now better known as Ludwig and an SS officer. At her request he takes over the case of a betrayed partisan, that of Sonja’s lover Valentine. Ludwig releases the man, but Valentine’s freedom comes at a cost: Sonja has to provide a sexual service and on top of that is later transported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Will the lovers see each other again? If so, how will they and their relationship survive the war?
A star of Slovenian literature
With dozens of novels, essays and plays under his belt, work translated into 21 languages, and a series of prizes to his name, Drago Jančar (b. 1948) is known far beyond the borders of his homeland. He has won the Prešeren Award (the highest Slovenian literary award), the European Prize for Literature, and recently, for the fourth time, the prestigious Kresnik Prize for best novel of the year for In ljubezen tudi (And Love Itself – English translation forthcoming). Jančar is also a journalist and a staunch advocate of freedom of expression. From 1987 to 1991 he chaired the Slovenian PEN Centre. As such, he played an important role in the political upheaval in Slovenia.
Drago Jančar will be interviewed by Karen Billiet, critic at De Standaard der Letteren and editor at Klara.
About the previous novel, I Saw Her That Night:
De Standaard der Letteren