2 / 208
2
Angel of Oblivion (excerpt) & poems
Maja Haderlap
Maja Haderlap is a member of the
Carinthian Slovene community of
Austria. A native Slovenian, she
writes also largely in German now.
Reflecting on this space between
language cultures, she says: “I
enact my own ostracism over the
history of a conflict, my own, and I
train myself in the art of
association. The ropes that bind me to my languages and
cultures are the net that constricts and secures me.
Sometimes calls and voices wander through the privacy and
quiet of the corridor, resonances of fears, experiences of
violence, and apprehensions, and they are chased away by
the echoes of auspicious dialogue.” Thus has come
Angel of
Oblivion
, set among the Slovenian minority in Austria in
World War 2. This cathartic work is a bestseller in Austria,
and won for her the prestigious Ingeborg Bachmann Prize.
Retaining its lyrical astonishment, Tess Lewis’s translation
from German has won the Austrian Cultural Forum’s 2015
Translation Prize. This novel is forthcoming from
Archipelago Books, and enjoys its English-language debut
here. Following this is some of Maja Haderlap’s poetry, also
translated by Tess Lewis.