Every morning the memories are a little different. The world of Sebastijan Pregelj's novel A Chronicle of Forgetting is governed by dementia. In his previous novels and stories Pregelj has taken us to incredible, fantastic worlds, to worlds of the past, and once even into space, but the most incredible world is the world hidden in the human brain. Here, he gives us a remarkable, deeply humanistic story about pondering life and looking for meaning, for that happiness which we do not know how to find in the privileged part of the world and which people from other continents would like to have, but most of all this is a novel about accepting the end of life. It speaks of last things with a light that inspires and awakens. Pregelj is a writer with a keen ear for a story, for structuring plot, for gradual intensification, and for unexpected, sometimes extremely minute, but never unimportant reversals. He confirms anew that he is in command of his craft and one of Slovenia's finest writers.

The Slovene writer Sebastijan Pregelj was born in Ljubljana in 1970 and studied history at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana. In the 1990s, he began writing short stories, which appeared in various literary magazines. In addition to four short story collections, he has published six novels: Leta milosti (Years of Mercy, 2004), Na terasi babilonskega stolpa (On the Terrace of the Tower of Babel, 2008), Mo¸, ki je jahal tigra (The Man Who Rode a Tiger, 2010), Pod sre?no zvezdo (Under a Lucky Star, 2013), Kronika pozabljanja (A Chronicle of Forgetting, 2014), Vdih. Izdih. (Breathe In. Breathe Out, 2017), and, most recently, V Elvisovi sobi (Dear Ali. Dear Elvis, 2019). He also writes books for children. Four of his novels have been nominated for the Kresnik Award for Best Slovene Novel, and his stories have appeared in anthologies in German, Czech, Polish, and English. Three of his novels have been published by the Drava Verlag (Klagenfurt, Austria) in Erwin Köstler's German translation: Auf der Terrasse des Turms von Babel (2013), Unter einem glücklichen Stern (2015), and Chronik des Vergessens (2017). He is co-author, with Ga¨per Troha, of the guide Ljubljana Literary Trail, which exists in both English and Slovene. Pregelj lives and works in Ljubljana and is a member of the Slovene Writers' Association.

ContentsPart 1An Unusual Assembly 11Part 2Memories Are Just a GameMostly a Harmless One 21All the Windows in My Life Have Faced East 29The Empty Bench Will Always Remind Meof a Man I Had Nothing to Do With 35That Other World Is Becoming Moreand More Like This One 42Before I Forget Who I AmGrey Clouds Cover the Sun 51On the Safe Side 57If I Could Live Life Over from the Beginning 64The Silence That Comes from the Flat Next DoorIs Calming 73Here with Me 79So Long as You're Willing to Act a Littleand Use Your Old Tricks 82For a Moment I Feel Satisfactionand a Sweet Tingling Sensation 88Ultimately, We Are All Apostles 92Every Night I Wake Up Coveredin Sweat and Piss 100Border Watch Means Nobody Gets Past Alive 104Aida Saw Him and I Understand Everything 118You Said That Courage Was the Answer 1276Sebastijan PregeljPart 3We Are Content, We Are Happy 133You Should Leave When People Still KnowWho You Are 143The Flower Garden 149The Black Horse 158I Look at the Light Falling Through the Window 169Stardust 173Part 4You Are Life As It Is 177Tanja Petri?The Harmless Game of Memoriesand What It Can Lead To 179Sebastijan Pregelj: Selected Bibliography 189Litteræ Slovenicæ 19912019 193