Lojze Kovačič was a Slovene writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

. His novel The Newcomers is often considered one of the most important Slovene novels of the 20th century and has been translated into German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 and Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

.

Kovačič was born to a Slovene father and a German mother in Basel

Basel

Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

 in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 in 1928. His patriotic father having refused Swiss citizenship, his family was expelled from Switzerland in 1938 and moved first to rural Lower Carniola

Lower Carniola

Lower Carniola was a kreis of the historical Habsburg crown land of Carniola from 1849 till 1919 and is nowadays a traditional region of Slovenia. Its center is Novo Mesto, while other urban centers include Kočevje, Grosuplje, Krško, Trebnje, Mirna, Črnomelj, Semič, and Metlika.-See also:* Upper...

 and then to Ljubljana

Ljubljana

Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

, just at the outbreak of the Second World War. His father's death in 1944 shifted the burden of supporting the family on Lojze. At the end of the war, the mere fact that they were half German made them suspicious and the whole family apart from Lojze were deported. Lojze remained despite frequent confrontations with the authorities. In 1962 he graduated in Slavic and Germanic Studies

Germanic philology

Germanic philology is the philological study of the Germanic languages particularly from a comparative or historical perspective.The beginnings of research into the Germanic languages began in the 16th century, with the discovery of literary texts in the earlier phases of the languages. Early...

 from the Faculty of Education of the University of Ljubljana

University of Ljubljana

The University of Ljubljana is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. With 64,000 enrolled graduate and postgraduate students, it is among the largest universities in Europe.-Beginnings:...

. He found employment as an art and puppetry

Puppetry

Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance which involves the manipulation of puppets. It is very ancient, and is believed to have originated 30,000 years BC. Puppetry takes many forms but they all share the process of animating inanimate performing objects...

 teacher in Ljubljana and was from 1978 to his retirement in 1989 also involved in literary education. Literary recognition did not come until the 1970's. Many of his novels are highly autobiographical. He received a number of awards including the Prešeren Award

Prešeren Award

Prešeren Award is the highest decoration in the field of artistic and in the past also scientific creation in Slovenia awarded each year to one or two eminent Slovene artists...

 in 1973 and the Kresnik Award

Kresnik Award

Kresnik is a literary award in Slovenia awarded each year for the best novel in Slovene of the previous year. It has been bestowed since 1991 at summer solstice by the national newspaper house Delo. The awards ceremony is normally held on Rožnik hill above Ljubljana where the winner is invided to...

for best novel in 1991 and 2004. Besides his opus of adult fiction he also published a number of books for children and young readers. He died in Ljubljana in 2004.

List of works

adult fiction

• Ljubljanske razglednice, Postcards from Ljubljana, short stories (1956)
• Ključi mesta, Keys to the City, short stories (1967)
• Deček in smrt, A Boy and Death, novel (1968)
• Sporočila v spanju – Resničnost, Messages in Dreams; Reality (1972)
• Pet fragmentov, Five Fragments (1981)
• Prišleki, The Newcomers (trilogy), novel (1983–1985)
• Basel (1986)
• Prah, Dust, novel (1988)
• Kristalni čas, Crystal Time, novel (1990)
• Zgodbe s panjskih končnic, Stories from Beehive Panels (1992)
• Vzemljohod, The Descent (1993)
• Književna delavnica – šola pisanja, The Workshop: A School of Writing (1997)
• Otroške stvari, Things of Childhood, novel (2003)
• Zrele reči, Things of Maturity, novel (published posthumously 2009)

youth literature

• Novoletna zgodba, A New Year's Tale(1958)
• Zgodbe iz mesta Rič-Rač, Tales from the Town of Rič-Rač (1962)
• Fantek na oblaku, A Boy on a Cloud (1969)
• Potovanje za nosom, Following your Nose (1972)
• Možiček med dimniki, A Man amongst the Chimneys (1974)
• Najmočnejši fantek na svetu, The Strongest Boy in the World (1977)
• Dva zmerjalca, A Pair of Scolders (1979)
• Rdeča kapica, Little Red Riding Hood (1979)
• Zgodba o levih in levčku, The Tale of Lions and the Lion Cub (1983)
• Zgodbe iz mesta Rič-Rač in od drugod, Tales from the Town of Rič-Rač and elsewhere (1994)