Trafika Europe 5 - Slovenian Interlude

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.

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