Egon was 12 and he wanted a record player. You can win friends with a record player or chat up a girl, invite her to listen to your records. But in order to get a record player, Egon will have to defeat a neurotic mother, a madly religious grandmother, a sadistic teacher – not to mention souls and angels.
This is the first part of an autobiographical trilogy about growing up in the claustrophobic world of an authoritarian mother and grandmother, lost among angels and ghosts, where it’s hard to tell the devil from Stalin in a skirt. The second part is the novel Childhood and the third part It’s Personal.
Editions
Slovenia: Beletrina, 2001, 1st edition
Beletrina, 2008, 2nd edition
Beletrina, 2011, 3nd edition
Goga, 2022, 4th edition
USA: Scala House Press, 2005 (translated by Maja Visenjak Limon)
Croatia: Fraktura, 2005 (translated by Jagna Pogačnik)
Czech: Argo, 2005 (translated by Kristina Pellarová)
Italy: Fazi Editore, 2008 (translated by Michele Obit)
France: Editions franco-slovenes & cie, 2019 (translated by Zdenka Štimac)
Spain: Editorial Nazarí, 2023 (translated by Olivia Ávila)
The novel was selected as one of 100 books to read from Eastern Europe and Central Asia by Calvert Journal.
Film
Novel is based upon a feature film script Sweet Dreams (imdb), Arsmedia and Slovenian Film Fund, 110 minutes.
The premiere was at 4th Slovenian Film Festival March 30, 2001.
Film won:
- Award for the best feature film
- Award for the best actress – Veronika Drolc
- Award for the best screenplay – Miha Mazzini
- Synchro film award for the producer of the best film – Franci Zajc
- Slovenian film critics’ award for the best film
- Stop magazine award for the best actress of the year – Veronika Drolc
International awards:
- Special award for achievement at the 3rd film festival in Motovun, Croatia (2001)
- Golden Palm for best film at Mostra de Valencia XXII (2001)
- FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) film prize at the Troia Film Festival in Portugal (2002)
- “Der Heinrich” award at The Braunschweig Filmfest, Germany (2002)
