Gorica

Why do cities exist? Is a city its buildings or the people who live in it – their emotions,their bonds and destinies, their stories, their memories? What happens to these people when a border suddenly and definitively cuts into their lives, and what becomes of the city that this border has torn apart?

Mateja Gomboc’s novel centres around the town of Gorica, which the knife of history carves into Italian Gorizia and Yugoslavian Nova Gorica. The tumultuous period spans almost eighty years, during which the following takes place: the Italian occupa- tion, the capitulation of Italy, the arrival of the Germans, the burning of settlements around Gorica, the influx of refugees, the end of the war, the division of Gorica and the construction of Nova Gorica. The storyline is observed through the personal accounts and perspectives of four women: Mateja from Ajdovščina, the Friulian Pina, Dora from Gorica and Lili, Pina’s granddaughter.

Mateja Gomboc, with her extraordinary knack for human psychology and her broad knowledge of history, creates a dynamic, versatile, and lively image of a city, which was suddenly split in two.