Picture of author.

Drago Jančar

Author of I Saw Her That Night

52+ Works 390 Members 10 Reviews

About the Author

Image credit: Der slowenische Schriftsteller Jančar auf der Wiener Buchmesse 2019. By Bwag - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83761131

Works by Drago Jančar

I Saw Her That Night (2010) 71 copies
Northern Lights (1984) 42 copies
Mocking Desire (1993) 29 copies
Best European Fiction 2014 (2013) — Preface — 27 copies
En ook de liefde (2017) 23 copies
Des bruits dans la tête (1998) 15 copies
Joyce's Pupil (2003) 12 copies
The Prophecy and Other Stories (2009) — Author — 8 copies
Au commencement du monde (2022) 2 copies
Terra incognita (1989) 2 copies
Pisanja in znamenja (2014) 2 copies
Il ronzio (2007) 1 copy
Razbiti vrc 1 copy
Temna stran meseca (1998) 1 copy
Disput (1992) 1 copy
Egiptovski lonci mesa (1995) 1 copy
Prikazen iz Rovenske (1998) 1 copy
Halstat (1996) 1 copy

Associated Works

Best European Fiction 2011 (2010) — Contributor — 107 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

Llego hasta la página 100 y lo dejo. No me interesa gran cosa lo que estoy leyendo.
 
Flagged
cuentosalgernon | Aug 4, 2022 |
I simply can't say enough how easily I found myself falling deeply under the spell of Jancar (and I would assume some of Biggins as well, being the translator) as I turned the pages of this book. Simply telling other readers that I couldn't put the book down is not description enough for how I felt as I read the Galley Slave. Every word seemed to help you hang on until the one that followed it. The main character, in fact, doesn't become a galley slave until well through the book, however, the words "when are they going to get to it?" never crossed my mind. The entire story was a beautiful curiosity and an amazing journey through a time of witch burning, church complications, and plague, where the city and state gradually lose control of all that they are used to holding and discover there may be no way back to the order everyone is expecting.

The main character is Johan Ot, a stranger with a questionable past who has a very unique life after we meet him, let alone what we learn about him as the story progresses. The author puts us easily into Ot's head, helping us to realize the horrors of watching people tormented for being who they are, or watching officials get what they want, no matter what. When threats of torture are thrown on him, it is our hearts that pound in anticipation of the pain and anguish that is to come. If anyone asks if it is possible to write a beautiful book about a tormented soul, this would be the book I would point to.
… (more)
 
Flagged
mirrani | 1 other review | Apr 6, 2013 |
This novel is a whirlwind of lives lived by one man, Johan Ot. Fortune, misfortune, fortune, misfortune: such is the pattern stamped upon his soul. I found myself reading quickly to keep the story moving and then halting and slowing down to savor the text and its details.

The story is all the more engaging knowing that it was written in 1978 during the height of the Cold War in the then-nation of Yugoslavia, held together by Tito and his version of communism. The parallels of Leopold's Holy Roman Empire, its accompanying Inquisition, and the attempt to hold together peoples being cobbled together by Catholicism (in the face of challenges from Lutheranism, a merchant class, emerging middle class, and the like) to its contemporary setting (1978), as well as that of the American empire of 2011 (when the English translation makes its debut) is absolutely stunning when I really pause to think about it. Looking backward and forward in time, while focusing on the specific story of one man in a particular space and time, this novel is breathtaking in its beauty, humor, and horror.… (more)
 
Flagged
troysworktable | 1 other review | Dec 31, 2011 |

Awards

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Xurxo Borrazás Contributor
Susana Medina Contributor
Oskar Magnusson Contributor
Elvis Hadzic Contributor
Tom McCarthy Contributor
Katya Atanasova Contributor
Mox Mäkelä Contributor
Inga Zholude Contributor
Ioan Mânăscurtă Contributor
Vladimír Havrilla Contributor
Vesna Lemaić Contributor
Thierry Horguelin Contributor
Herkus Kunčius Contributor
Vlada Uroševiḱ Contributor
Rui Manuel Amaral Contributor
Kjell Askildsen Contributor
Éric Chevillard Contributor
Robert Minhinnick Contributor
Yuriy Tarnawsky Contributor
Tõnu Õnnepalu Contributor
Vladimir Kozlov Contributor
Christoph Simon Contributor
Nina Gabrielyan Contributor
Jens Dittmar Contributor
Klaus Detlef Olof Translator, Übersetzer, Übersetzer
Lyudmil Dimitrov Translator
Michael Biggins Translator
Hafner Fabjan Translator
Andrew Wachtel Translator

Statistics

Works
52
Also by
2
Members
390
Popularity
#62,076
Rating
3.8
Reviews
10
ISBNs
98
Languages
15

Charts & Graphs