Lojze Kovačič
Lojze Kovačič (1928‒2004) has established himself as a powerful Slovenian voice in the modern literary canon. His works articulate the limits of the human condition in an introspective and highly philosophical manner, whilst also exploring morality and existential topics such as life and death, displacement and exile, dream and reality. Although born in Switzerland, Kovačič moved to Ljubljana with his German mother and Slovenian father after their forced departure from their homeland and exile to Slovenia in 1938. As the acclaimed recipient of the Prešeren Award, Slovenia’s highest award for artistic achievement, in 1973 and a three-time winner of the Kresnik Award for best novel of the year in 1991, 2004 and 2016 – the latter being the Silver Kresnik Award – Kovačič was an accomplished author of both children’s and adult fiction who left behind a luminescent literary legacy. He has been compared to great Central European writers such as Danilo Kiš, Sandor Marai, Imre Kertész and Ismail Kadaré, and was voted the most outstanding Slovenian novelist in a 2000 survey.
- “The greatest Slovenian writer of the 20th century. ”
