Picnic

Publisher: ŠKUC
Author: Nataša Sukič
Original title: Piknik

Much like Djuna Barnes, Nataša Sukič is fascinated by dramatic visions, erotic mad- ness, frustrations, obsessive reminiscing, gallows humour, divine beauty, reaching for the unknown, confronting nothingness, to which she adds allusions to modern pop culture (either film or music); but rather than looking for comparisons in motifs and topics between her text and those of Djuna Barnes, she is interested in preserving a high language norm.

In addition to innovative images, the atmospheric feel that doesn’t seem forced even when the setting is moved from Ljubljana to Paris or New York, Nataša Sukič makes use of Pantagruel multiplication, randomly assembled stories. One of the sto- rylines in the novel opens out into the stories exchanged between two lovers, another concerns the narrators; allusively and with an exceptional feel for detail, the author weaves the sketched stories together, thereby naturally materialising her obsession with narration and, above all, exposing and questioning her own autobiographicalness.

About the author

Nataša Sukič

Nataša Sukič (1962) made her debut as a writer in 2005 with her short story collection Desperadosi in nomadi (Desperados and Nomads), followed by another short story collection Otroci nočnih rož (Night Flowers’ Children) in 2008 that was shortlisted for the Dnevnik Fabula Award.

Then came a change in course – she switched from short prose, in which her fragmentism often made it difficult to make out its short story form, to novels: 2010 saw the release of her novel Molji živijo v prahu (Moths Live in the Dust), followed by the novel Kino (Cinema) in 2013 that made it into the top ten for the Kresnik Literary Award and Piknik (Picnic) in 2015 (finalist for the Kresnik Literary Award). The latter is Nataša Sukič’ fifth literary work that is elusive in terms of form as it can be read both as a novel or a book of short stories. Then followed the novel Bazen (The Pool) that made it into the ten top for the Kresnik Literary Award in 2018. Her latest novel Amplituda: remiksi in drugo (Amplitude: remixes and another) was published in 2020.