Description

Boris Pahor (1913–2022) was a Slovene novelist from Trieste (which at that time was part of Austria-Hungary), who was best known for his heartfelt descriptions of life as a member of the Slovenian minority in pre–Second World War increasingly fascist Italy as well as a Nazi concentration camp survivor.

His success was not immediate; openly expressing his disapproval of communism in Yugoslavia, he was not acknowledged and was probably intentionally not recognized by his homeland until after Slovenia had gained its independence in 1991. His autobiographical novel Nekropola, published in 1967, was first translated into English (in 1995) as Pilgrim Among the Shadows, and secondly (in 2010) as Necropolis.

He was awarded the Legion of Honour by the French government and the Cross of Honour for Science and Art by the Austrian government and was nominated for the Nobel prize for literature by the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Pahor was married to the author Radoslava Premrl (1921–2009) and wrote a book dedicated to her at the age of 99.

Design: Daniela Vidmar Podboj and Tomaž Podboj
Issue date: 19.09.2023