I will no longer skate on the pond (Kresnik Award 2023)

I Will No Longer Skate on the Ice is the second novel by writer, critic, playwright, editor, and literary historian Lado Kralj., who received the award for best debut and best story for his short story debut Kosec koso brushi (2010). As in his first novel Če delaš omleto (2014), he also looks back at the recent history of the capital, with historical facts, people, events and settings surrounding fictional literary characters. I Won't Skate on the Pond Anymore takes place in Ljubljana from the Italian occupation to the 1950s, specifically in Šiška, where the famous Jama Castle stands, which houses the convent of school sisters.

They run a girls' boarding school, which Eva Verdonik also attends. She is loved by the teenager Ivan Knez, who works as a courier for the Vosovci. Each of them has his own protector, he is the liquidator of traitors Kunde, and she is just Jago Baba. The atmosphere is tense and the situation is dangerous, because in the name of the great fascist idea, the Italians are killing Slovenians or taking them to concentration camps, where they often face an equally sad fate. As if that were not enough, the Italian lieutenant Tartaglia also begins to look after Eva. Despite the difficult subject matter, Kralj is flexible, relaxed, and sometimes even ironic in his style.

The novel's editor, Tina Vrščaj, adds:"I Will Not Skate on the Pond Anymore is a novel that simply drags us through. Lado Kralj was an erudite professor, theatre scholar and dramatist, and at the same time a passionate storyteller. Each of these roles certainly added something to his exceptional writing skills. The narrative does not flow linearly, but a dramatic tornado forms before us, swirling historical facts and literary fictions into one. Who is not tempted to peek into a distant period of our past, a time when Ljubljana was in the grip of the Italian carabinieri and fascists? Let us remember Marjan Rožanc's Love - and Kralj's "Green Cave" is Šiška. There is no shortage of bloody injustices and painful deaths, but the author presents the dark facts with a kind of carnivalesque silliness. He shows us how we can deal with our own, personal and national, past - with laughter at our own and others' expense."

The intertwining of fiction and true facts is subtle, unobtrusive, and generally virtuoso.For example, Ivan wants to watch a film with Rita Hayworth with his friends at the Šiška Cinema, but they come across an occupation propaganda film. On a walk, he meets the painter Hinko Smrekar, who tells him about his Viennese gatherings with Ivan Cankar. The story flow is amazing, magnificent and smooth like the trail left by a skater on the ice.

Hardcover with dust jacket, 13.5 x 21.0 cm, 236 pages.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Lado Kralj was born in 1938. He received the award for best debut and story for his collection of short prose Kosec koso brushi (2010). In 2014, he published the novel Če delaš omleto. As an author, he has signed the scholarly works Ekspresionizm, Teorija drame (Theory of Drama) and Primerjalni članki (Comparative Articles), and as an editor, Zbrano delo Slavko Grum (1976) and Zgodbe iz drisetih let (Stories from the 1930s) by Milena Mohorič. After graduating, he studied at New York University and was a dramaturg at the avant-garde theater The Performing Garage. He was a co-founder of the theaters Glej and Pekarna. In 2020, the Society of Theater Critics and Theatrologists awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award.