• Publisher: VigeVageKnjige
• 82 pages
• Author: Gašper Krajnc
• Ilustrator: Gašper Krajnc
• Original title: Vaške ptice

Village Birds, which can be read as a stand alone title, is the continuation, the second part of the "bird" trilogy by Gašper Krajnc, who has in the past few years established himself as one of the prominent newcomers of the genre of Slovenian graphic novel. We follow Ambrož, the protagonist from City Birds, as he returns home to Carinthia, the rural and unspoilt north east part of the country. Through a myriad of events, he comes across a drawing that he knows does not belong to his recently deceased grandfather, but doesn't know who drew it. When he tries to find the author, who may have inspired his grandfather's love of drawing birds, he discovers a hidden part of his family's history and uncovers the intricate turn of events that shaped it in a resounding and permanent way. The path of discovering yourself, Ambrož learns, leads through the history of your family, which is intricately entwined with the place your ancestors and you call home. Village birds are Krajnc's love letter to Carinthia, to the beauty of its landscape, but maybe even more so to its people: to those who once lived there, during the Second World War, i.e. the time in which the main story in the novel takes place, those who live there today and shape it so that it remains a safe haven and a place of inspiration, and ultimately to those who were born there and have left, but are forever influenced by it nonetheless.

About the author / illustrator

Gašper Krajnc

Gašper Krajnc (1985) graduated from the Faculty of Theology, but he now works as an illustrator and cartoonist. He has co-authored two graphic novels as an illustrator, Rite (2016, in English) and Malgaj (2018), and he may be found in two recent anthologies of Slovenian comics, covering the years 2006 to 2016 and 1927 to 2017. In 2020, VigeVageKnjige published City Birds, his first graphic novel in which he created both the visuals and the text. The book garnered a lot of positive reviews from both the general public and specialists, and a year later, it was given the Zlatirepec Award for the best Slovenian original graphic novel for adults.