Novel
A Day in Spring
Pomladni dan
Ciril Kosmač · 1953
Synopsis
Shortly after the war, a writer who has lived abroad for a long time returns to the family house in the valley where he was born. From the window, he sees again the meadow of his childhood, smaller than he remembered. His aunt tells him about village life, where the inhabitants are repairing by themselves the road that the partisans had blown up, under the direction of an old carpenter of more than eighty. From one memory to the next come back the First World War, Fascist violence, the war and the liberation, love affairs and figures of the valley.
Context
The novel first appeared as a serial in the review Novi svet in 1950, then in book form with Prešernova družba in 1953; a short story from the same year is a discarded chapter of it. Realist in manner, it proceeds by association, memories linking the scenes to one another, in the manner of the European psychological novel. It is also a tribute to the author's native valley and a reflection on creation: the narrator regards homesickness as a vision of home, from which his writing springs.
Who it is for
A novel of memories, with a quiet humour, that can be read without knowing the history of the Littoral; a French translation exists from 1982.
Prizes and reception
The Prešeren Prize crowned his entire body of work; it was announced ten days after his death.
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