historical fiction
The Masochist
Longlisted for Dublin Literary Award 2022
I read the Slovenian edition, so maybe I can’t speak accurately for the translated version.
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was an Austrian nobleman and writer. Word masochism derives from his name. This novel presumes he adopted a little girl and named her Nadezhda. This is her story.
Nadezhda is a fictional character among real historical figures. The story takes place in Austro-Hungarian Empire, more accurately in Lemberg (present Lviv in Ukraine), Vienna, and Trieste from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. Besides Leopold, Nadezhda meets a few other historical figures, like Sigmund Freud, Gustav and Alma Mahler, Rainer Maria Rilke, and others. I noted some during my reading and missed a few.
Nadezhda is not necessarily the most loveable character. She is not perfect and is quite an inactive person. She represents a woman of the noble class, and this is her look on love and life.
This novel is full of long and sometimes a bit complex sentences. You may have to read some of them twice. But despite that, words and sentences flow easily. For me, it was still a very readable book. I often stopped to reread the same sentence just because I found it beautiful and cleverly done.
A well-researched novel that I am sure will not satisfy all readers. But some might find this a historical and literary gem.
Katja Perat is one of the leading poetic voices of her generation in Slovenia. Her first poetry collection The Best Have Fallen (Najboljši so padli) came out in 2011 and received both the Best Debut Award and the Kritiško sito Award, an award bestowed by the Slovenian Literary Critics' Association for best book of the year. Her second book of poetry Value-Added Tax (Davek na dodano vrednost, 2014) was also extremely well received. Currently she is a doctoral student of comparative literature at Washington University in St. Louis, USA. The Masochist (Mazohistka), published in Slovene in May 2018, is her first novel.
I read the Slovenian edition, so maybe I can’t speak accurately for the translated version.
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch was an Austrian nobleman and writer. Word masochism derives from his name. This novel presumes he adopted a little girl and named her Nadezhda. This is her story.
Nadezhda is a fictional character among real historical figures. The story takes place in Austro-Hungarian Empire, more accurately in Lemberg (present Lviv in Ukraine), Vienna, and Trieste from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. Besides Leopold, Nadezhda meets a few other historical figures, like Sigmund Freud, Gustav and Alma Mahler, Rainer Maria Rilke, and others. I noted some during my reading and missed a few.
Nadezhda is not necessarily the most loveable character. She is not perfect and is quite an inactive person. She represents a woman of the noble class, and this is her look on love and life.
This novel is full of long and sometimes a bit complex sentences. You may have to read some of them twice. But despite that, words and sentences flow easily. For me, it was still a very readable book. I often stopped to reread the same sentence just because I found it beautiful and cleverly done.
A well-researched novel that I am sure will not satisfy all readers. But some might find this a historical and literary gem.
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Details:
- author: Katja Perat
- full title: The Masochist
- genre: literary fiction, historical fiction
- format/type: bookfiction
- country: #slovenia
- topics:
- publisher: Istros Books
- publish date: October 20, 2020
- pages: 220
My Rating of the Book:
- content: 💙💙💙💙
About the Author:
Katja Perat is one of the leading poetic voices of her generation in Slovenia. Her first poetry collection The Best Have Fallen (Najboljši so padli) came out in 2011 and received both the Best Debut Award and the Kritiško sito Award, an award bestowed by the Slovenian Literary Critics' Association for best book of the year. Her second book of poetry Value-Added Tax (Davek na dodano vrednost, 2014) was also extremely well received. Currently she is a doctoral student of comparative literature at Washington University in St. Louis, USA. The Masochist (Mazohistka), published in Slovene in May 2018, is her first novel.
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