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Author Ivana Sajko and translator Alida Bremer are the winners of the tenth Internationaler Literaturpreis for translated contemporary literatures for the novel "Liebesroman" in its first German translation. Ivana Sajko receives a prize of 20,000 €, Alida Bremer receives a prize of 15,000 €.


"Ivana Sajko’s Liebesroman tells of a world in agony, of how political systems encroach on lives, put people under pressure, and slowly poison the personal. The main characters are an unsuccessful young artist couple, a child, an apartment, a neighbor and a whole country out of joint. With a few well-aimed strokes, Ivana Sajko draws a thoroughly political tableau and brings the world into the chamber-play narrative space of her novel. What happens in Croatia could happen anywhere. Under the surface, this love story, which is also about falling out of love, is about the power and impotence of the individual in our globalized present. Ivana Sajko’s powerful words create an explosive brightness. Alida Bremer, the important mediator of Croatian literature in German, has found a captivating language for her."

– The Jury