Kurji pastir (nomination KRESNIK 2021)

Lainšček deals in an intimate way with time, which remains unknown and inaccessible to most people.Through the experiences of his parents, mother Trejzka and father Pištek, he writes about the time around his birth and creates a unique family portrait. With the novel, he uncovers long-suppressed memories and writes from experience about events he witnessed in an incomprehensible way, such as his parents' decision on what to name him, how his birth went, or what difficulties his mother had with initial breastfeeding.

Hardcover with dust jacket, 14.5 x 21 cm, 324 pages.

INVISIBLE GLASSES COLOR OUR VIEW OF THE WORLD:"I am convinced that in early childhood we are given a kind of invisible glasses that then color our view of the world for the rest of our lives. In this regard, much of what I have created so far may already be marked by my experiences in the distant past. But despite all this, The Kurji pastir is certainly a book that a writer writes only once in a lifetime. In this novel, I deliberately returned to my early childhood. I was interested in what was really happening to me at that time, how it might have affected me, and what these invisible glasses that I received at that time might be," explains the author, who established himself with works such as Petelinji zajtraj, Ločil bom peno od valov, Ki jo je megla prinesla and Muriša, and this time he is signing his name to a surprising book that he created using a very special technique.

ACTIVE IMAGINATION METHOD:"I used the method of active imagination, which CG Jung developed for psychotherapeutic purposes, but I eventually transformed it into my own creative process. This allowed me to spend a lot of time in my dreams with my father and mother, who are of course deceased, while writing this novel. I also actually socialized with many other protagonists in this way. I found myself on a kind of walking path for return, where much of what I had not remembered or perhaps had repressed was gradually revealed to me. This is also why the novel The Shepherd was subtitled The First Book, as I plan to write the Second and Third." - Feri Lainšček

THIS IS NOT MEMORIAL PROSE, THIS IS PROSE OF MEMORY:The novel Kurji pastir is thus not a prose of memory, but a prose of memory, the deepest one that creeps into our subconscious and is difficult to bring to light, let alone capture on paper with such feeling as Feri Lainšček does. With the author's characteristic language, which is this time particularly marked by his own experience, he creates the atmosphere of living and growing up in a house made of clay and covered with straw, which had "only three living rooms, and on the lower side there was a wooden eaves with a woodshed, a pigsty and a chicken coop." The way he empathizes with the mother and father, who each experience the birth of a child in their own way, is incredible, and testifies to a deep connection with the past, which will now forever remain alive between the covers of Kurji pastir.

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK:"She got up and frantically looked for a vulnerable spot where the walls had given way, then she noticed water on the bench she had gotten up from. She felt around, brushed off her skirt and was shocked to discover that her legs were also wet. So there was no doubt that her amniotic fluid had leaked. She stood in the middle of the kitchen, holding herself between her legs with both hands, frantically wondering what this could mean and what she should do now. When Pištek was leaving for the road in the morning, she hadn't yet felt any contractions and calmly accompanied him to the doorstep, but now everything was suddenly different."