Name: Bogovi se nam smejijo
Price: 24 EUR
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9789612848637

Gods Are Laughing at Us

Bogovi se nam smejijo

Aleš Šteger

Genre:: Short stories
Year of publication:: 2022
Number of pages:: 288
Rights sold:: Germany (Wallstein Verlag), Mexico (Ediciones Arlequín)
Available reading materials:: Spanish pdf, German pdf

Ancient Greek myths echo through the lives and destinies of six modern-day characters. The author plays with the myths, rewriting them in new and different contexts, audaciously weaving them through contemporary and topical stories. Though these stories strike at the heart of the zeitgeist, their essence focuses on human relationships, passion, longing, desire and trauma — just like the original myths.
In the story of Europe, Barishs tries to save her underage daughter from her former partner, who has sold her as a bride, kidnapping the girl to take her to a better life. Prometheus is a miner who is entrusted with the secret task of excavating an abandoned tunnel, which turns out to be a mass grave. Narcissus has spent his life trying to prove himself and succeed in the arts and entertainment industry, but his reckless promotional campaigns backfire and he is left alone with his reflection. A museum guard falls in love with a street musician, who captivates him with her guitar, but she turns out to be involved in some strange business and, just as Orpheus had to rescue Eurydice, the guard must try to save her from her own underworld. In Medusa, a love affair between a man and a woman turns into a bloody and suspicious story about a missing head, and Icarus is born under a scorching sun in the midst of the refugee crisis.
The ancient Greeks knew that man's fate was predetermined and inevitable. Are the gods only a diminutive, distant reflection of our weaknesses? Or are we humans a pale reflection of them? When the gods pursue us and lure us into their traps, when they whisper to us and seduce us with all kinds of tricks, when they finally abandon us and we are left alone - what expression do we recognise in their divine faces? Is there a gracious divine smile on the face of the gods? Is it an indulgent laugh? Open mockery of our misfortune? A cruel snigger? Or is ambivalent silence the most characteristic form of divine laughter?

Also by Aleš Šteger

Find out more

Interested in finding out more about this title?

Write to us here and a member of our foreign rights team will get back to you as soon as possible.