Newcomers: Book One

Lojze Kovacic is one of Slovenia’s most acclaimed writers and The Newcomers, his autobiographical trilogy, one of the most important Slovenian works of the 20th century, being voted the “Slovenian Novel of the Century” by literary critics. So this English translation is to be welcomed, and indeed I did enjoy it, even though I found it quite challenging at times. It’s the sort of book that presupposes some background knowledge of the politics and social conditions of the time, and I had to do some research to fully understand what was going on. It’s based on the author’s own experiences when his family were forcibly returned to their Slovenian homeland in 1938 from Switzerland, where they lived in fairly affluent circumstances. Back on the father’s birthplace, things are a lot more primitive and the family have to cope with some very harsh conditions and dispiriting poverty. The opening scene of the novel when the family arrive in darkness and mud through the forbidding forests when no one meets them and when they do arrive at the family home face a hostile reception is chilling indeed. We see it all through the eyes of the youngest child of the family, and life is miserable in the extreme. Eventually the family are able to move to Ljubljana but life is little better there. This first volume ends with the arrival of Mussolini’s troops and the beginning of a period of occupation. Grim indeed. I found the writing atmospheric and the nightmarish quality of the family’s existence, where they meet only prejudice and hostility from those around them is vividly conveyed. I look forward to reading the next 2 volumes at some point.