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Enchanted Odysseus by Evald Flisar

Enchanted Odysseus
by Evald Flisar

$18.95 paperback
2016, 216 pages, 6 x 9

ISBN: 978-0692693940
ISBN-10: 0692693947

Order through CreateSpace: www.createspace.com/6191207

A tragically misguided journey to the illusory concept of home

In ancient Greece the fate of man was determined by the gods. In today's globalized world gods have been replaced by powerful individuals, mostly invisible, all-powerful and rarely well-meaning. Our "enchanted Odysseus", a man who after a surfing accident in Bali loses his memory and identity, is sent on a long journey home (back to himself as he was) through a series of tasks he has to perform in different countries. They are communicated to him by an Australian neurologist, supposedly his benefactor, who assures him that the tasks, including murder, are a part of his therapy. But nothing is what it seems. Our hero, who tells his story through a series of emails he sends to different people, either real or invented, largely to keep a record of his journey the details of which he keeps forgetting, presents a figure of contemporary everyman, lost in a world that has also lost its memory, and with it the meaning of existence. The dreamlike narrative enfolds the reader and drags him along by the force of incredible adventures, ruminations, and unexpected turnarounds all the way to the ending that doesn't resolve the mystery but only deepens it. Where in this world is Ithaca? Does it exist?

 

LifeEdge 023: Interview with Vladimir Kolmanic on Slovenia

https://youtu.be/K2E-mmRcCvQ






Evald Flisar (1945, Slovenia). Novelist, playwright, essayist, editor, globe-trotter (travelled in 96 countries), underground train driver in Sydney, editor of (among other publications) an encyclopaedia of science and invention in London, author of short stories and radio plays for the BBC, president of the Slovene Writers' Association (1995 – 2002), since 1998 editor of the oldest Slovenian literary journal Sodobnost (Contemporary Review), since April 2015 President of the Slovene PEN Center. Author of 13 novels (nine of them short-listed for kresnik, the Slovenian "Booker"), two collections of short stories, three travelogues, two books for children, and fifteen stage plays (eight nominated for Best Play of the Year Award, three times won the award). Winner of the Prešeren Foundation Prize, the highest state award for prose and drama and the prestigious Župančič Award for lifetime achievement. Various works translated into 36 languages, among them Bengali, Hindi, Malay, Nepalese, In- donesian, Turkish, Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Czech, Albanian, Lithuanian, Icelandic, Romanian, Amharic, Russian, English, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, etc. His stage plays are regularly performed all over the world, most recently in Austria, Egypt, India (three different productions in two months alone), Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Serbia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Belarus and USA. Attended mo- re than 50 literary readings and festivals on all continents. Lived abroad for 20 years (three years in Australia, 17 years in London). Since 1990, resident in Ljubljana, Slovenia. His novel My Father's Dreams, published by Texture Press in 2005 and recently by Istros Books in London, UK, has earned him a place at the European Literature Night, an annual event at the British Library that features 6 of the best contemporary European writers. Another of his novels, On the Gold Coast (published in English by Sampark, Kolkata, India) was nominated for the most prestigious European literary prize, the Dublin IMPAC International Literary Award. It was listed by The Irish Times as one of 13 best novels about Africa written by Europeans, alongside Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, Isak Dinesen, JG Ballard, Bruce Chatwin and other great literary names. In June/ July 2015 the author completed a three-week literary tour of USA, reading at the Congress Library in Washington and SUA convention in Chicago, attending the performance of his play Antigone Now at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington, speaking at the Slovenian Permanent Mission at the United Nations, etc.

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