Three Loves, One Death

by Evald Flisar, David Limon (Translator)

A small family move out to the Slovenian countryside. The plan is to restore and make habitable a large, dilapidated farmhouse. Then the relatives arrive. Theres Cousin Vladimir, a former partisan writing his memoirs, Uncle Vinko, an accountant who would like to raise the largest head of cabbage for the Guinness Book of Records, Aunt Mara and her illegitimate daughter Elisabeth whos bent on losing her virginity. And finally Uncle Schweik, the accidental hero of the war of liberation and who everyone assumed was dead . . . Evald Flisar handles the absurd events that follow like no other writer, making the smallest incidents rich in meaning. The house, the family, their competing instincts and desires, provide an unlikely vehicle for Flisars commentary on the nature of social cohesion and freedom. Along with Panorama by Dusan Sarotar and None Like Her by Jela Krecic, Three Loves, One Death is part of the three-book World Series from Peter Owen Publishers and Istros Books. Each series brings to light the vibrant and innovative fiction produced in a featured country, offering readers the very best literature in translation.

Genres: Fiction

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Evald Flisar, born in 1945 in Slovenia, then still part of Yugoslavia, is an iconic figure of contemporary Slovenian literature. Novelist, playwright, essayist, editor, globe-trotter (travelled in 98 countries), underground train driver in Sydney, Australia, 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), he is also the author of 16 novels (eleven of them short-listed for kresnik, the Slovenian “Booker”), two collections of short stories, three travelogues, two books for children (both nominated for major awards) and 15 stage plays (eight nominated for Best Play of the Year Award, three times won the award). Winner of Prešeren Foundation Prize, the highest state award for prose and drama, and the prestigious Župančič Award for lifetime achievement. Various works of his have been translated into 40 languages, among them Bengali, Hindi, Malay, Nepalese, Malayalam, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Turkish, Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Czech, Albanian, Lithuanian, Dutch, Icelandic, Romanian, Amharic, Russian, English, German, Italian, Spanish, etc. His stage plays are regularly performed all over the world, most recently in Austria, Egypt, India (three different production in two months alone), Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Serbia, Bosnia, Belarus, USA and Mexico. Attended more than 50 literary readings and festivals on all continents. Lived abroad for 20 years (three years in Australia, 17 years in London). Since 1990 he lives in Ljubljana, Slovenia. His novel My Father’s Dreams, published in 2005 by Texture Press in New York and in 2015 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 and nominated for the Dublin International Literary Award) 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 he 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 Slovene Permanent Mission at the United Nations ... In January 2016 he was one of the speakers at the largest literary festival in the world (Jaipur, India), together with Margaret Atwood, Colm Toibin, Colin Thubron, Aleksander Hemon, Stephen Fry and other illustrious names. Following the publication of his novel Three Loves, One Death in England, he attended promotional events in London, Bristol and Dublin. In January 2017 he spent three weeks touring India, lecturing at three renowned institutions (National School of Drama in New Delhi, Rabindranath Tagore University in Kolkata, Malayalam University in Kerala), attending productions of two of his plays in Bengali and promoting translations of three of his books in Kerala, Bangalore and Kolkata. One of the best-organised promotional events in his literary career was the eight-day promotion of two of his novels in Polish translation in May 2017 (Warsaw, Katowice and Krakow). New productions of his plays are due in India, Indonesia and Mexico. In 2018 he presented the German translation of his novel Words Above the Clouds in Berlin and the English translation of his novel A Swarm of Dust in the European House in London. His international success is truly astonishing: speakers of languages into which his works have so far been translated represent half of the world’s population.

Reviews

[Jai Lau · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of the book is not that bad. A family leaves the city behind to renovate a farmhouse but soon discover a mysterious device (that may or may not exist) that seems to alter their behaviour, revealing the insecurities and hostilities that they had previously kept hidden. Unfortunately, the writing style and focus of the writer went too far into the perspective of the male, adolescent narrator. This results in far too much focus being placed in the sexuality of the female character, Elizabeta, to the point that it is a little disturbing. A shame really considering that there was substantial meat to this story if Flisar had stuck at it a little more.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm in Slovenia and and enjoyed reading Flisar's My Father's Dreams, so was keen to get onto this.

It isn't as dark as Dreams, but is similar in that it is narrated by young boy, this time at 17 years old, a bit older. For the majority of it, it is much lighter, tellingv as it does, of a dysfunctional family who have moved away from the city to a rural Slovenian mountain village in the hope that it will make them closer to each other. Significantly, this all takes place in the early 1990s, following the split of Yugoslavia.

The father is a depressed alcoholic, a former history teacher who took early retirement because, as he says, “History is over.” The mother is overly concerned with her appearance, and looking as young as she can. She goes running every day and seems on the brink mentally.

The older brother of the narrator, Peter, is a university student who has put his official studies to follow his passio for the night sky. He has cravings for his 15 year old cousin, Elizabeta, daughter of the scatty Aunt Mara, an artist. Her husband, Vinko, was an accountant, but nows sees his mission of getting the family into the Guinness Book of Records.

At the heart of the novel is family life, the very best and worst of it. The period at which the novel is set is significant, as Slovenia emerges into its own identity, a time of hope and ambition. The family, like the country, seek a new future, and have to deal with the various hardships that will obtsruct them.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a family who move from the town to the country when the patriarch of the family dealing with depression and a retreat from life decides on the move. Coming along is his wife, who to get over her husband's lack of interest in stuff that married couples do, she does a morning mini marathon. There is 2 uncles too, one a hero of the war of independence, the other an accountant who dreams of growing a large cabbage and the painter aunt Mara. Of the children, there is the narrator and his brother Peter and Mara's daughter, the sarcastic Elizabeta (who isn't blood relative to anyone but her mother)

In the farm house they purchased, they find a mysterious device that everyone is unsure but I think the novel really comes to life when an estranged brother of the wife, Svejk turns up. He is a bus driver. Svejk is a good soul but with nothing to his name, the family help him get some new clothes and then promise their support if he canfind a fitting vehicle that he can drive people with. Eventually he finds a job as an unofficial volunteer fireman.

It is a pretty short book so I don't want to go into further. I did like the narrative style of the writer, I think it worked and I found the voice of the narrator to be appropriate to the age of the narrator. It is also a bit funny in some of the descriptions. I enjoyed it.

[Mark Ludmon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bizarre and absurd story of an extended family that relocates from the city to the Slovenian countryside. The narrator, aged 17 at the time, reveals the tensions and fraught relationships within his family which comprises his father and mother, his directionless older brother Peter, his mother’s brother Vinko, his father’s elderly cousin Vladimir who fought as a Partisan in World War Two, his artistic aunt Mara, and her overwrought and melodramatic 15-year-old daughter, Elizabeta. The family discover a mysterious object on the farm, made of a fusion of tools, household items and other elements, which they decide is the sphinx-like catalyst for the family’s mental and moral disintegration, further affected by the arrival of the mother and Vinko’s half-brother, the accident-prone Jaroslav Švejk. With a Roma community nearby and the younger generation’s preoccupation with sex, things get complicated and emotions become heightened, with wild and violent consequences. Set in the late 1990s, the story reflects Slovenia’s recent history and concerns about freedom and society.

[Cathleen Ross · Rating 1 out of 5]

Appalling. The author has no idea of plotting. The characterisation of Elizabeth is disgusting and unbelievable. It’s clearly written by an older man who is not right in the head.