About the book
Written as an exchange between Grandma and Nedjeljka, her granddaughter and namesake, a conversation unfolds that encompasses a broad range of times and places between 1938 to 2016, moving back and forth temporally from past to present, and geographically between Castellammare del Golfo in Sicily and Split, Croatia.
Their imagined conversations reveal the lives of these two different women and the deep cross-generational bond between them, as they discuss cross-cultural love, private life, and family, as well as the public sphere of war, politics, migration.
To read an excerpt from the book, click here
About the Author
Lidija Dimkovska (b.1971 Skopje, North Macedonia) is a poet, novelist, essayist, and translator currently based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She has published six books of poetry, three novels, one American diary, and one short story collection, translated into numerous languages. In 2006, Ugly Duckling Presse published her book of poetry Do Not Awaken Them with Hammers; in 2012, Copper Canyon Press published her book of poetry pH Neutral History (shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Award 2013); and in 2016, Two Lines Press published her novel A Spare Life (European Union Prize for Literature and longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award 2017). Her novel Non-Oui (Grandma Non-Oui) was shortlisted for the award of Writers’ Union of Macedonia for the best prose book of the year and for the international literary award Balkanika, 2016.
About the Translator
Christina E. Kramer is a professor emerita in the Department of Slavic languages and literatures at the University of Toronto, Canada. In addition to her publications on Balkan linguistics and an award-winning Macedonian textbook (Univ. of Wisconsin Press), she is also a literary translator. Her novel translations include A Spare Life by Lidija Dimkovska (Two Lines Press, 2016. Longlisted for Best Translated Book of the Year), Freud’s Sister by Goce Smilevski (Penguin Books, 2012. Lois Roth Prize Honourable Mention), and three novels by Luan Starova: My Father’s Books (University of Wisconsin Press, 2012), The Time of the Goats (University of Wisconsin Press, 2012), and The Path of the Eels (Autumn Hill Books, 2017. Supported by a grant from the US National Endowment for the Arts). She was awarded a second NEA to translate Dimkovska’s novel Non-Oui (Grandma Non-Oui).
Translator’s Note
This is the second novel by Lidija Dimkovska that I have translated. In the first, A Spare Life, I was drawn to the author’s strong female characters, rich language, and focus on odd details that sometimes bordered on the grotesque. I was intrigued by the contrasting personalities of the novel’s conjoined twins and relished the challenge of finding suitable registers for the two girls’ voices. The novel Non-Oui (Grandma Non-Oui) also centers on the lives of two women, but here the two voices are a grandmother and granddaughter. Through their imagined conversations, the double narration allows multiple points of view as the women’s lives are projected against the backdrop of the defeat of Fascism in the 1940s and its revival in Europe today. Their conversations flit like memories jumping back and forth between decades and traveling from Split, in Croatia, to Castellammare del Golfo, in Sicily. Those imagined conversations reveal the lives of two different women and the deep cross-generational bond between them as they discuss—indeed argue about—cross-cultural love, language and identity, one’s private life, aging, and loss, all unfolding against a background of war, the vagaries of politics, and migration. These multiple cycles of experience are seen through the eyes of two women sharing a name, a language, and affection, but theirs are very different lives. For the translator, the two voices and Lidija’s poetic language made for an exciting ride.
About the Publisher
Istros Books is an independent press focusing on the literature of Central and S E Europe. Publishing contemporary fiction and non-fiction as well as forgotten classics, we hope to provide a window onto this region and showcase the wonderful stories that arise from these rich, fascinating cultures. Supporting us through book sales is a way to help us achieve our goals and keep diversity in publishing. www.istrosbooks.com
