Judith

Book Description

The plot of the novel "Judith" unfolds in the province of Judaea in the sixth century BC. The heroine is Judith, a young widow, who recounts in the first person her moving and dramatic life story. Judith lives in cruel patriarchal times, and she has never experienced sincere love. Her aggressive husband suddenly dies shortly after their wedding. When the Assyrians, who were the greatest military force of the time, lay siege to her town, its citizens remain without food and water, and the devastation of her town is only a matter of time. Due to her beauty, Judith is the one chosen by the city elders to go to the enemy military camp, seduce the commander and then behead him. In this dramatic story inspired by the well-known Biblical episode, everything takes place according to the plan of the city elders, apart from one unforeseen event: Judith falls in love with the Assyrian commander, the greatest enemy of her people... And so the dramatic war story unexpectedly turns into a painful love story with an unhappy outcome. "Judith" has gone through nine editions in the Croatian language (Mozaik knjiga, Zagreb). The novel has been published in translation in Russian (Azbooka Publishers, St Petersburg), French (Theatroom noctuabundi, Paris), German (Seifert Verlag Vienna), Slovenian (Orbis, Ljubljana), Slovakian (Publisher Jan Jankovic, Bratislava), English (ITG, Zagreb), Norwegian (Engelstad Forlag, Oslo), Czech (Dauphin, Prague), Catalan (Editorial Ensiola, Muro-Mallorca), Serbian (Most Art, Zemun) and Bulgarian (Fakel Express, Sofia). The PONTO theatrical company premiered "Judith" in Esperanto in Beijing, China, at the World Esperanto Conference. The Critics: In his latest novel Judita, the author changes his usual focus and allows the heroine herself to tell us the tale, throwing light on everything that the Bible leaves out. Gavran shows Judith as a woman of flesh and blood, uncovering her emotional life and privacy, which the Bible story, of course, does not. VJESNIK daily newspaper, Zagreb, Milovan TATARIN What most interests Gavran is the question of the freedom of the individual, the truth hidden behind the official version of the legend, which turns human beings into slaves. Therefore, this intriguing novel by Miro Gavran is sure to attract a wide reading public. SLOBODNA DALMACIJA, the daily from Split, Nino SORIA Gavran offers us a new version of the Bible story, largely on the plane of the psychology of the main characters, introducing into the story the motif of a passionate love affair between the heroine and the hero. ZADARSKI LIST, Zadar, Goran BUJIA This is a novel that is sure to have many readers. The tale has been woven by a story-teller with an ease that is completely unattainable to many writers. OTVORENE NOVINE, Nenad Valentin Borozun We have before us an exceptionally readable text that is tasteful in every respect. MLADINA, Mihael Bregant In the embrace of a man whom she must kill, she becomes aware of her body, and the role assigned her transforms into an intimate drama full of inner tenstion, which does not cease with the actual act, but continues on in her life in which she must be and act what she is not. SLOBODNA DALMACIJA, Ivan J. Boskovic The most successful part of the novel is at the end when Judith meets Holofernes, when she falls in love and when she first comes to know carnal love, since that aspect of her marriage had been like an ongoing rape. VJESNIK, Zeljko Kliment