In/Half - Hardcover

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 Litterę Slovenicę series, and the Slovene Writers’ Association. His book Slovenia: Culture Smart! was published by Kuperard in 2010.

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.