Slovenian Author Honoured to Receive Important Literary Prize
Slovenian author Drago Jancar, who received the Jean Amery 2007 book prize for his German-language collection of essays "Brioni" at the Frankfurt Book Fair last week, said on Thursday he was happy and proud to have received a prize bearing Amery's name.
The prize-winning book is named after a Croatian island where ex-Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito had a seaside residence. It deals with the heritage of the iconic president of former Yugoslavia and his cult today.
According to Klett-Cot, which gives out the the prize, Jancar is an independent thinker, a sovereign stylist and author who accepts the history of Central Europe with all its peculiarities in order to deal with the basic issues of the present.
"Brioni" is not a literary project, but a horrifying search for a home, which is the consequence of the Slovenian perturbation, German author Hermann Wallmann said in his speech last week when the award was conferred on Jancar.
Apart from Jancar, five other authors were shortlisted for the prize, which is named after the Austrian-born essayist whose work reflected his experience of WWII and of concentration camps, where he was imprisoned for his activity in the organised resistance in the Nazi-occupied Belgium.
The Jean Amery prize has been conferred on acclaimed authors sporadically since 1982.
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