{"id":3702,"date":"2024-01-02T09:37:01","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T09:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clothecenter.com\/istrobooksdev\/?post_type=product&p=3702"},"modified":"2024-01-02T09:37:01","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T09:37:01","slug":"a-swarm-of-dust","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/clothecenter.com\/istrobooksdev\/product\/a-swarm-of-dust\/","title":{"rendered":"A Swarm of Dust"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author:\u00a0Evald Flisar<\/a><\/p>\n

Translated by David Limon<\/p>\n

Nominated for Kresnik Award 2018\u00a0 (the Slovenian “Booker”)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Born into a Roma family in 1960s’ Yugoslavia, Janek Hudorovec has grown up with a terrible secret. Given the opportunity to ‘make something of himself’, he abandons the familiar wild and tactile world of nature and enters the controlled, rational life of university and the city. Here Janek proves himself to be not a conscious rebel but a spontaneous one; under the influences of\u00a0 impulses he cannot control. While his teachers try to understand and categorize him, it is only his fellow student, Daria, who seems able to provide a rational insight into the causes of\u00a0 his behaviour and offer him true affection. Yet the battle that Janek must fight with his past leads him back to the gypsy village, and a terrible denouement. This tragic story of self-punishment explores the idea that man and nature, if they are to survive, together and separately, must forever remain in conflict. Flisar’s ability to describe Janek\u2019s inner states through juxtaposition with the outer world create a mesmerizing claustrophobia, as the reader is pulled inexorably into the nightmarish world of a man in anguish.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Swarm of Dust<\/em>\u00a0is widely considered to be one of Flisar\u2019s finest works of fiction, questioning the very notion of objective truth and subverting the norms of Judeo-Christian morality.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

“Flisar\u2019s depictions of Janek\u2019s perceptions \u2013 his shifting consciousness and his inner state \u2013 are mesmerising. The violence of his story is brutal, yes, particularly for a woman reader, perhaps, but this forms part of the inexplicable inner force that arises within Janek. He\u2019s like an idiot savant, seeing through social structures and pretences…”<\/em><\/p>\n

Morelle Smith,\u00a0Riveting Reviews (ELN)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

“Janek Hudorovec grows up in a Roma family in 1960s Yugoslavia. In the first scene of Evald Flisar\u2019s novel, we discover the dark secret that Janek will carry with him through life. Janek finds social conventions and niceties stifling; though he may think he\u2019s escaping the strictures of village life when he gets the chance to go to university, he realises that he needs the freedom of nature, even though returning to the village means confronting his past. Flisar evokes Janek\u2019s inner life so fully that A Swarm of Dust can be deeply harrowing to be read \u2013 but it\u2019s powerful stuff.”<\/em><\/p>\n

David’s Book World<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

“Evald Flisar’s\u00a0A Swarm of Dus<\/strong>t pulls no punches in tackling big topics like incest and the troubled place of Slovenia’s Roma community.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The Calvert Journal<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Previous Reviews for \u2018My Father\u2019s Dreams\u2019 (2015):<\/strong><\/h3>\n

“Evald Flisar, Slovene man of letters extraordinaire, undertakes fearless forays into the bizarre ways in which the mind works.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Eileen Battersby,\u00a0Irish Times<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Flisar has the rare ability as a writer to move the reader from laughter to disgust within the space of a single page.”<\/em><\/p>\n

A. M. Bakalar,\u00a0Words without Borders<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author:\u00a0Evald Flisar Translated by David Limon Nominated for Kresnik Award 2018\u00a0 (the Slovenian “Booker”) Born into a Roma family in 1960s’ Yugoslavia, Janek Hudorovec has grown up with a terrible secret. Given the opportunity to ‘make something of himself’, he abandons the familiar wild and tactile world of nature and enters the controlled, rational life …<\/p>\n

A Swarm of Dust<\/span> Read More \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3703,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[22],"product_tag":[47],"class_list":["post-3702","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-books","product_tag-a-swarm-of-dust","desktop-align-left","tablet-align-left","mobile-align-left","ast-product-gallery-layout-horizontal-slider","ast-product-gallery-with-no-image","ast-product-tabs-layout-horizontal","first","instock","sold-individually","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clothecenter.com\/istrobooksdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/3702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clothecenter.com\/istrobooksdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clothecenter.com\/istrobooksdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clothecenter.com\/istrobooksdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clothecenter.com\/istrobooksdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clothecenter.com\/istrobooksdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=3702"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clothecenter.com\/istrobooksdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=3702"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clothecenter.com\/istrobooksdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=3702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}