Aleš Čar

Aleš Čar (born in 1971) is a Slovenian writer, screenwriter and editor. Čar was born and brought up in the small town Idrija located in the Goriška region in the western part of Slovenia. He studied comparative literature and has worked as an editor in Ljubljana. He was the editor-in-chief of the (now dormant) magazine Balcanis and hosted a talk show about humanistic issues and the artistic and cultural topics on the Slovenian national TV. For five years he worked as an editor in the culture section of the Slovene daily newspapers Dnevnik and in the following two years as an editor-in-chief of Objektiv (the most read Saturday edition of Dnevnik).

Furthermore, he was also one of the four leaders of the program of the Cultural Capital of Europe Maribor 2012 being in charge of the digital dimension of the project named LifeTouch. Among others, this very successful project consisted of Perspectives & Reflections – blogs written by international authors. In 1997 he won Best Debut Novel Award presented by the Union of Slovenian Publishers and Booksellers for his novel Igra angelov in netopirjev (When Bats Dance with Angels). His second novel Pasji tango (Dog’s Tango) and the last novel O znosnosti (On Tolerability) were both among five finalists/nominees for the 2012 Kresnik Award.

In 2007 he wrote the short story collection Made in Slovenia (Made in Slovenia). His another short story collection V okvari (Out of Order) was twice nominated among two finalists for the Prešeren Fund Awards for the best book published in the last two years

Author's titles

MadeInSlovenia

Made in Slovenia

By

Beletrina, 2007, 190 pages

Translation rights sold: Poland (Biblioteka Balkan), Serbia (Rende), Czech Republic (Duhapress), Macedonia (Magor)

In short story collection Made in Slovenia Aleš Čar did something that is very difficult to do – he caught Zeitgeist on three printed pages (which is the length of the stories), he caught daily routines into fiction starting with public news accessible to everyone and finishing with private worlds and little stories with an emphasis on the individuals and their destiny.

OZnosnosti

On Tolerability

By

Beletrina, 2011, 257 pages

30-pages excerpt available in English

A novel of complex structure that portrays one family’s extensive saga, following four generations through a period of hundred years, scattered throughout Europe.

OutOfOrder

Out of order

By

Beletrina, 2003, 168 pages

Two stories translated in English

Three stories translated in German

One story translated in Spanish

Translation rights sold: Poland (Wojciech Domachowski), Croatia (Fraktura)

Out of order is a shorty story collection with modern anti-heroes who are striving for safety and luck being disabled to achieve it by their tragic everyday life and the remains of transition. Very critical to characters. passiveness and addictions, Čar puts to question the status of young middle class population, their role in the urban city life as well as their resignation and unfulfilled emotional relationships.