About the book
Every morning the memories are a little different. The world of Sebastijan Pregelj’s novel A Chronicle of Forgetting is governed by dementia. In his previous novels and stories Pregelj has taken us to incredible, fantastic worlds, to worlds of the past, and once even into space, but the most incredible world is the world hidden in the human brain. Here, he gives us a remarkable, deeply humanistic story about pondering life and looking for meaning, for that happiness which we do not know how to find in the privileged part of the world and which people from other continents would like to have, but most of all this is a novel about accepting the end of life. It speaks of last things with a light that inspires and awakens. Pregelj is a writer with a keen ear for a story, for structuring plot, for gradual intensification, and for unexpected, sometimes extremely minute, but never unimportant reversals. He confirms anew that he is in command of his craft and one of Slovenia’s finest writers.
Additional sample translation of an excerpt of a novel in English
Original title: Kronika pozabljanja
Edited by: Tanja Petrič
Afterword: Tanja Petrič
Afterward translation: Rawley Grau
ISBN: 978-961-6995-59-7
Pages: 200
Price: 18,00 EUR
About the translator
From the press
“This is a story that moves the reader in more ways than one. A Chronicle of Forgetting begins at the end. In retrospect, the funeral-goers are just extras, actors in a drama, and among them is more than one ghost from the beyond. Little wonder, then, that the conclusion of the novel offers a new beginning, an insight into a new story that is perhaps only just beginning. Indeed, this novel about death could not end more beautifully.”
Ana Geršak, Sodobnost
“Memories, of whatever sort, have meaning, and old age makes sense, but only if you dare to acknowledge your own smallness and refuse to remain in an unhurried silence and a seeming dignity. Pregelj’s book speaks with elegant vehemence of this courage and it is written in a way that befits one of the Slovenia’s leading contemporary novelists: excellently.”
Igor Bratož, Delo
“A Chronicle of Forgetting is a remarkable story of pondering life and looking for meaning, for that happiness which we don’t know how to find in the rich West and which people from other continents would like to have, but most of all it is a novel about accepting a human end. […] It is undoubtedly Sebastijan Pregelj’s most realistic novel, and although some readers who have read other novels by Pregelj will be surprised by Chronicle, the author confirms anew that he is in command of his craft and that he is, beyond a doubt, one of Slovenia’s finest writers.”
Blaž Zabel, Pogledi
“Sebastijan Pregelj is undoubtedly a writer with a keen ear for a story, for structuring plot, for gradual intensification, and for unexpected and sometimes extremely minute, but never unimportant reversals; all of this – also in A Chronicle of Forgetting – attracts the reader’s attention, holding it until the end, and these places, which remain open until the end of the novel, give rise to an intense reading experience.”
Tina Kozin, Literatura
“At times Pregelj is even poetic [...]. This poetic aspect arises especially when he senses the anxiety-filled reader who will glide through his lines of reflecting about this and the other side, about life and non-life.”
Mitja Reichenberg, Večer
“Chronicle of Forgetting meditatively flushes out the story so that the beauty which in reality constitutes life can shine: some fragments of experience, some revisions, some love, some bits of everything. Pregelj has managed to enter into the silence of the last days and stirred it just enough so that the reader dares to dedicate himself to it. It is no small thing to develop a language of grace.”
Ana Schnabl, Dnevnik
