Novel
Ptičja hiša
Not translated into English
Berta Bojetu · 1995
Synopsis
The author's last and most ample novel tells of the condition of women in the face of men and of a totalitarian power. The writing is more realistic here than in her earlier books: the brutality of daily life is tied to a ritual evil, and poetry appears only with the inner resistance of those who refuse to bend. Two short stories published the year before are linked to this novel, one of which has James Joyce spend a night in Ljubljana.
Context
The novel appeared in 1995; according to the Slovenian Book Agency, she wrote it during a stay in Jerusalem. It continues her first novel, published in 1990, a modernist narrative about a woman painter struggling with men and power, and a screenplay published after her death takes up the themes of both books. Litterae slovenicae regards it as the work that made her best known; an international conference was devoted to her in Maribor in 2002.
Who it is for
A broad and harsh novel, in a realist style shot through with poetry; there is no French translation.
Prizes and reception
Kresnik Prize 1996: it was the first time a woman had received this prize for the best Slovene novel.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.