In/Half - Hardcover

Frelih, Jasmin B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1786073900 ISBN 13: 9781786073907

Publisher: Oneworld Publications, 2018

Synopsis

WINNER OF THE EU PRIZE FOR LITERATURE

SHORTLISTED FOR THE KRESNIK AWARD

Twenty-five years into the future, a glitch in the global communications network is ripping a previously united world apart at the seams. The millennials find themselves hardest hit, trapped in a crumbling world they did not want – among them childhood friends Evan, an addict theatre director; Kras, a family patriarch and ex-war-minister; and Zoja, an anarchist poet. As they each prepare to celebrate their fiftieth birthdays, the friends desperately try to recapture the magic of their former lives and hold on to some sort of sense of belonging.

With its experimental style and sharp focus on the contradictions of modernity, In/Half is a powerful statement on the perils of the future, and on the nature of the novel, by an outstanding voice from the new generation of writers.

About this title

About the Author

Jasmin B. Frelih studied comparative literature, literary theory and history at the University of Ljubljana. His published works include a short story collection (Tiny Ideologies) and a book of essays (Pale Freedom). His debut novel In/Half was published in 2013 to great critical acclaim, receiving the best literary debut award at the annual Slovenian Book Fair as well as the EU Prize for Literature. In/Half was also shortlisted for the Kresnik Award, and translation rights have been sold to more than ten territories. He lives in Slovenia.

Jason Blake was born, raised and educated for the most part in Toronto, before moving to Slovenia where he now teaches in the English Department at the University of Ljubljana. His translations from German and Slovenian have appeared in Dalkey Archive Press’s Best European Fiction. He works closely with Slovenia’s annual Vilenica International Literary Festival, the Litterę Slovenicę series, and the Slovene Writers’ Association. His book Slovenia: Culture Smart! was published by Kuperard in 2010.

Review

Three long-separated friends find their lives becoming fairy tales in Frelih’s disorienting debut, set in a world that is both just around the corner and as distant as a dream. Evan, trying to direct a troubled play in a future Tokyo, is sidetracked by his drug habit and ditches his robot “minder” to travel Alice-like through a hallucinatory sector of the city, one that requires a gas mask to enter. Meanwhile, Kras, ex-Slovenian minister for war, tries to celebrate his 50th birthday with family but is driven, like the Big Bad Wolf, to take an axe to the tree in which his father seeks sanctuary when he finds pornography in it. Zoja, a censored poet, stands naked, as in a nightmare, before her Brooklyn audience at the performance planned in her honor―before she is attacked by a man who is stalking her. The book culminates with the three characters all sharing the same taxi ride and each seeking closure to the estranged intimacies that haunt them. This story of trauma, family, and ambition sustains its ghostly, ethereal tone and will be appreciated by readers looking for a mind-bending puzzle.

(Publishers Weekly)

About this edition

• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1786073900
• ISBN 13: 9781786073907
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368