“The way Rankov balances and weaves together the seemingly lighter side of the September 1st story with its darker and more momentous occasions, such as the September 1st, 1939 outbreak of World War II, makes for a highly compelling narrative. By slipping back and forth from fascism to youthful frivolity, the darkness is made darker and the known tragedies of history less easily familiar.”
From my review of Slovak writer Pavol Rankov’s soon-to-be published novel It Happened on the First of September (or Some Other Time) just out in Versopolis. It’s a fantastic novel in a brilliant translation by Magdalena Mullek and I highly recommend it. When it was first published in Slovak the novel was one of the twelve winners of the newly introduced European Union Prize for Literature in 2009.
Read a Q&A Magdalena Mullek conducted with Rankov on Literalab a couple years ago here.
Photo of Pavol Rankov by David Konečný
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