Publisher about the book:
Brina Svit, a writer who has long written in both Slovenian and French, is well known in Slovenia for her books Moreno, Con brio, Smrt slovenski primadone, Odveč srce, Coco Dias ali zlata vrata, Hvalnica šiličnosti and Noč v Reykjaviku. This time, she presents herself to readers not with a novel, but with a text that is difficult to define in genre. These are stories and writings about second- or third-generation Slovenians who were brought to Buenos Aires by decision, fate or historical coincidence, accompanied and punctuated by photographic portraits.
“Two years ago my mother died, suddenly I was no longer anyone's daughter. When I stared at her last face, I wanted to understand something about myself, or about this heritage that is transmitted through language and is called identity. But I was not interested in the calm and self-evident identity of those who live at home, but the identity of emigrants. That's why I went to Buenos Aires, where about 30,000 Slovenians and their descendants still live today, who immigrated to Argentina in two large waves: Primorska, who fled poverty and Italian fascism in the thirties, and all the others, politicians, who were forced to leave their homes after World War II. An unusual idea, I agree, especially because I took someone else on this journey of searching for Slovenian faces, also an exile, a Pole and a writer, which means an exile par excellence, Witold Gombrowicz. Anyway, you will understand what it is about when you see them up close.”