Year 1 of the project ON THE MARGINS
IMMIGRANT VOICES OR VOICES OF ‘OTHERS’: LET US HEAR THEIR STORIES
On the Margins
Year 1
IMMIGRANT VOICES OR VOICES OF ‘OTHERS’: LET US HEAR THEIR STORIES
“Everything’s much too big here,” thought Moominmamma. “Or perhaps I’m too small.”
Tove Jansson
During the first year of the project, we will publish 10 European literary works of different types and genres (4 novels, 2 graphic novels, 2 poetry collections and 2 children’s books) which portray different immigrant experiences: the current migrant crisis (British novel Exit West by Mohsin Hamid talks about the migrants from the Middle East); Dutch novel La Superba by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer about African migrants in Europe; Greek novel Dendrites, winner of the European Union Prize For Literature, about economic migrants from Europe to the United States; poetry of British poet Kei Miller about postcolonial migrants (Caribbean residents in the United Kingdom); poetry which deals with political exile by Abdellatif Laâbi, major Moroccan poet currently in exile in France. The project contains children’s book to emphasize the importance of teaching from a young age that diversity needs to be respected and fear of the unknown confronted (two children’s books by one of the greatest children’s book authors of the 20thcentury Tove Jansson). Croatian novel (the winner of 2018 VBZ Award for the best unpublished novel, Wild Woman by Marina Šur Puhlovski) will be translated into English and we hope that it will successfully “cross the border” and find its place in Europe.
All works will be promoted at the literary fair “Vrisak” in Rijeka and most authors will be invited to Croatia
Moominland Midwinter
Tove Jansson is Scandinavia’s favourite children’s author and her Moomin novels have been translated into more than 50 languages and are considered the classics of children’s literature.
L’arbre à poèmes Personal anthology (1992 – 2012)
L'arbre à poèmes is an anthological poetry selection by Abdellatif Laâbi, one of the most prominent contemporary Moroccan-French poets, winner of the prestigious Goncourt prize (2009). This collection includes the poems from nine different poetry collections published between 1992 and 2012.
LA SUPERBA
Award winning and much praised novel by the new European literary star. Written as a series of letters and notes addressed to the unnamed reader to whom the narrator reports about his life in Genova, where he made his permanent residence out of “desire to fulfil his eternal dream about the enviously rich and carefree Mediterranean life among real, authentic people here, in this medieval labyrinth.
Moominsummer Madness
In this novel the warm and generous world of Jansson’s fiction and illustrations depicts the power of nature and shows how dangerous and extraordinary things can happen to anyone in life, but Moomins face them bravely, with a positive attitude and a lot of humour.
Wild Woman
Wild Woman is an anti-love story, set against a backdrop of economic hardship. Told through the undiluted language of thought and mania, the twists and turns of internal dialogue are brought alive by a narrator determined to find her true voice. It is a warning against letting life slip...
Exit West
Saeed, a sensitive and somewhat restrained young man, and Nadia, self-aware, independent and free-spirited young woman, meet one night at “the class on corporative identity and product branding” in a town which has been “teetering on the edge of abyss”, at the edge of war.
The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion
The very title of this poetry collection immediately introduces us to its complex world – a world that is at the same time reduced to the basic categories which define a person’s existence. Kei Miller, acclaimed Jamaican poet living in Great Britain...
Alpha
Alpha lives alone in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire ever since his wife and son left for Paris without a visa. He has heard nothing from them since. Desperate, he decides to leave everything behind in order to find them. He can take different routes to Europe, but he faces possibly years of illegal travelling.