• Publisher: ŠKUC
• Author:
• Original title: Slediti neizgovorjenemu

Tracing the Unspoken is Milan’s first book in English. What a daring debut it is. Šelj does indeed bravely trace the unspoken: he writes explicitly gay prose poems, not shy- ing away from gay desire, sex, passion and obsession. But this writing does not exclude you if you are not a gay man. The opposite in fact: what Šelj manages to create is some- thing universal; something we can all relate to.

There is a narrative thread running through the book. At the beginning the pro- tagonist leads a sexually adventurous life. Eventually he seems to settle into a rela- tionship and everything that comes with one, including moments of tenderness and passion, but also loneliness and misunderstanding. Anna Blasiak

From the very first page I was pulled into Šelj’s poetry of obsession and became obsessed myself. His use of language gives shape to the shapeless and meaning to the banal. In his attempt to understand and give meaning to desire, he wakened in me a desire to keep reading and as I did, I devoured every word, constantly wanting more. Suddenly and surprisingly, I found a voice for the unsaid and watched as it came to- gether with what had been considered implied as new meanings came into focus.

I know nothing of the language of Slovenia so I cannot say anything about the quality of the translation, but I can say that translator Harvey Vincent found the words that speak to us all. Amos Lassen