In/Half

by Jasmin B. Frelih, Jason Blake (Translator)

Overview

An extraordinary debut from one of Slovenia's rising stars

It's 2036, twenty-five years after the 'Great Shutdown' destroyed the global communications network. In this post-Internet world, three childhood friends come together to celebrate their fiftieth birthdays. But with Zoja, a radical poet; Evan, an addict theatre director; and Kras, a former minister for war in attendance, this was never going to be a subdued occasion...

This hilariously anarchic debut plunges the reader into a world that is at once unthinkable and disturbingly familiar. Alarming, exhilarating and keenly focused on the contradictions of modernity, this is an astounding novel from a powerful new voice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786073914
Publisher:	Oneworld Publications
Publication date:	11/01/2018
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	928 KB

About the Author

Jasmin B. Frelih studied comparative literature, literary theory and history at the University of Ljubljana. His published works include a short story collection (Tiny Ideologies) and a book of essays (Pale Freedom). His debut novel In/Half was published in 2013 to great critical acclaim, receiving the best literary debut award at the annual Slovenian Book Fair as well as the EU Prize for Literature. In/Half was also shortlisted for the Kresnik Award, and translation rights have been sold to more than ten territories. He lives in Slovenia.

Jason Blake was born, raised and educated for the most part in Toronto, before moving to Slovenia where he now teaches in the English Department at the University of Ljubljana. His translations from German and Slovenian have appeared in Dalkey Archive Press’s Best European Fiction. He works closely with Slovenia’s annual Vilenica International Literary Festival, the Litteræ Slovenicæ series, and the Slovene Writers’ Association. His book Slovenia: Culture Smart! was published by Kuperard in 2010.

Editorial Reviews

09/24/2018
Three long-separated friends find their lives becoming fairy tales in Frelih’s disorienting debut, set in a world that is both just around the corner and as distant as a dream. Evan, trying to direct a troubled play in a future Tokyo, is sidetracked by his drug habit and ditches his robot “minder” to travel Alice-like through a hallucinatory sector of the city, one that requires a gas mask to enter. Meanwhile, Kras, ex-Slovenian minister for war, tries to celebrate his 50th birthday with family but is driven, like the Big Bad Wolf, to take an axe to the tree in which his father seeks sanctuary when he finds pornography in it. Zoja, a censored poet, stands naked, as in a nightmare, before her Brooklyn audience at the performance planned in her honor—before she is attacked by a man who is stalking her. The book culminates with the three characters all sharing the same taxi ride and each seeking closure to the estranged intimacies that haunt them. This story of trauma, family, and ambition sustains its ghostly, ethereal tone and will be appreciated by readers looking for a mind-bending puzzle. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

‘Mature, structurally varied, rich in content and stylistically accomplished... Frelih's first novel offers a decisive, yet unobtrusive sense of engagement, prompted by the recognition that the world of the third millennium is out of joint and the awareness of how hard it is to pinpoint that first, unequivocal mistake which sent humanity down a blind alley. We are haunted by a state of inevitability and searching for shelter – compassion – which does not come. Frelih doesn't beautify the world, he just sets it square in his sight, sharpens it, dissecting the patterns of evil within it.’

Pogledi

‘The blend of technologies old and new results in a uniquely speculative and philosophical novel.'

Words Without Borders

‘A dizzying reading experience... Like a breakneck surf session that keeps you glued to the screen until the early hours...with an unusually addictive mix of styles, tones, perspectives and meaning.’

Bruzz

‘A novel that repays careful reading for some brilliant set-pieces, for its believably flawed characters, and for its bone-dry, even cynical, wit.’

SFX

‘In/Half is an overwhelming vision of the future...and shows an exceptional writer at work.’

De Standaard

‘Appealing and intriguing.’

Complete Review

‘Three worlds, each with their distinct atmosphere, ranging from highly technological to the domestic, bring into being different languages that do not lack the feeling of alienation or nascent activism. Frelih sovereignly handles this second order of speech, his alienation is charged less by the librarian style of the erudite part of metafiction than with the density and intensity of poetic speech, in place of authorial narration we are submerged in fragments that, with their forcefulness, shine through and reflect the fates of individuals.’

EU Prize for Literature Jury

‘Frelih writes with a mature style, covering a wide range of themes linked to contemporary society, emphasising the grotesque and the fabular in an almost Kafka-esque style. The tone is by turns poetic, satirical, ironic and apocalyptic, finally moving towards surreal chaos. It is this style that makes Frelih's novel exceptional.’

iLiteratura.cz

‘One of the biggest emerging literary talents in Central and Eastern Europe.’

European Union Prize for Literature News

‘A topical narrative with delightfully experimental stylization... In/Half has established Frelih as one of Slovenia's rising literary stars.’

Nota Bene World Literature Today