Origins: a poem about love

Comment:

Origins is a comprehensive literary masterpiece. The text, described by the author Feri Lainšček as “the book of my life”, is something he revisited for the third time for this edition, executed by the Mladinska knjiga Publishing House. The intention behind his latest stylistic and content corrections was to translate the prehistoric world of the little girl Njo from the “language of ancient magicians” into a more modern and comprehensible literary language. In this way, the author mainly addresses the more demanding young readers. In his poetic text, despite the now more reassuring ending, Lainšček still preserves the original subject matter full of mysterious magical words and the mythical atmosphere brought to life with an almost ritualistic choice of words. The enhancement of the text by the artistic interpretation of Jure Engelsberger is also outstanding. In his own words, during the intensive examination of this difficult text and using the demanding watercolour technique and coloured pencils, the illustrator experienced “an artistic initiation and creative maturation, enriched by one or two life lessons.” The book is also accompanied by a brief but substantive foreword by Darka Tancer Kajnih. Origins may be a tale of a time long past, but its message about people as seekers of “something more” is timeless. Reading Origins with intuition and imagination offers an extraordinary literary experience. (Taken from the justification for the Golden Pear Award). The book has received the Golden Pear Award in the category of original Slovenian youth fiction.