Decorated Macedonian poet, novelist, and translator Lidija Dimkovska, whose work has appeared in publications including The Paris Review, will read from her newly translated novel A Spare Life, today at 7 p.m. at Prairie Lights, 15 S. Dubuque.
A former resident at the UI International Writing Program, Dimkovska rose to acclaim in Europe upon the 2013 release of A Spare Life in her native Macedonia. After garnering early and widespread praise from critics, the book won Dimkovska the European Union Prize for Literature.
In addition to awarding her €5,000 — about $5,500 — the prize also helped to fund translation of her book and the subsequent promotion that distribution on a global scale would require. As a result of that funding, an English translation of A Spare Life was released Oct. 11. Now, back in Iowa City, Dimkovska will be reading from the book tonight.
The narrative follows the lives of two 12-year-old conjoined twin girls, growing up in the wake of the Soviet Union’s dissolution and the onset of democracy that followed. A coming-of-age story that pushes back against convention, the novel offers a striking portrait of the difficulties so many adolescents face as they comes to terms with their burgeoning physical and emotional maturity. Already a complex time in any young life, the girls’ experiences are made all the more complicated by the fact that they have to go through everything together.
Publisher’s Weekly called Dimkovska’s work “kaleidoscopic” and “bighearted,” citing the author’s ability to create complex, sprawling worlds that continue to challenge her protagonists and enthrall her readers.
Dimkovska’s work in A Spare Life was recognized in large part because of its tendency to blur the lines between poetry and fiction, in an attempt to strike down the conventional barriers that delineate each literary form.
Citing authors whose work assumes a similarly defiant, lyrical status, writer Katie Kitamura said, “A Spare Life uses the boldest of metaphors — the life of conjoined twins — to embody the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. This novel brings to mind Elena Ferrante and Magda Szabó in the acuity of its social observation and the depth of its mordant humor.”
— by Girindra Selleck