The Sorrow of Miles Franklin beneath Mount Kajmakcalan :: Ivan Capovski

The Sorrow of Miles Franklin beneath Mount Kajmakčalan

by Ivan ČAPOVSKI

Translated from Macedonian by Paul FILEV


In the latter years of World War I, renowned Australian writer Miles Franklin travels to the Macedonian Front, joining as a nurse at the Scottish Women’s Hospital near Mt. Kajmakčalan. Soldiers from many nations surge across a Macedonia that has been partitioned, absorbed by its neighbors. Its people struggle to survive in the face of staggering losses and being forcibly conscripted into foreign armies fighting on their soil.


Amidst it all, Miles captures the names and hopes of the oppressed, recording their travails, their quiet triumphs, and the turmoil of a nation affected by events beyond its control.

This fictionalized account of a short period from Miles Franklin’s life is based on her own writing and contemporaneous documents, supported by extensive additions from local history and culture.


Details

  • Pages: x + 279
  • Trim size: 5″ x 8″ (127mm x 203mm)
  • ISBN
    Softcover: 978-4-908793-45-5
    Ebook: 978-4-908793-47-9
  • List Price
    Softcover: US$22.00
    Ebook: 6.99
  • Cover: Aleksandar Stankoski

Reviews

  • Čapovski does [Miles Franklin] in Macedonia better than I could ever have hoped, because Macedonia and its history is his home territory. …a fascinating account of a woman writer from the other side of the world observing, swept up in, one more iteration of the ancient conflicts which men have inflicted on each other in these mountains since before recorded history.
    Bill Holloway,TheAustralianLegend
  • This novel is … not meant to be realism. Miles as witness learns about a massacre, about the forced labour of villagers, about the routine rape of women, and the use of women as beasts of burden by allied French and Serbian soldiers. … the author has achieved his aim which is to bring little-known aspects of history to light.
    Lisa Hill, ANZ LitLovers

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About the author
Ivan Čapovski was born in the village Pozarsko, Aegean Macedonia, Greece in 1936. Amidst the Greek Civil War in 1947, he fled with his family to Vojvodina (Serbia) and later on to the Socialist Republic of Macedonia. Čapovski graduated in Macedonian language and history of literature from the Philosophy department at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje. He worked as a journalist in the newspapers Vecer and Nova Makedonija. Since 1963 he worked as a documentary director at the Macedonian Television and Radio Broadcast for more then 20 years. He has been Editor-in-Chief of Makedonska Kniga publishing house. He is a member of the Macedonian Writers Association since 1963 and the Macedonian PEN Centre. His poetry has been widely published and translated throughout Europe and Asia. Today he lives and writes in Skopje. He has published more than twenty works of poetry and prose and has twice been shortlisted for the Macedonian daily Utrinski Vesnik’s Award for Best Novel of the Year.


About the translator
Paul Filev is a literary translator living in Melbourne, Australia. He is the recipient of a Dalkey Archive Press Fellowship. He translates from Macedonian and Spanish. His translations include Alma Mahler by Sasho Dimoski (Dalkey Archive Press, 2018), Blue Label by Eduardo Sánchez Rugeles (Turtle Point Press, 2018), the anthology Contemporary Macedonian Fiction (Dalkey Archive Press, 2019), and the short-story collection My Husband by Rumena Bužarovska (Dalkey Archive Press, 2019).

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