Split

On January 01, 2024, the novel Träume und Kulissen in the translation by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp will be published under the title Split by AmazonCrossing in the USA. A pre-order of the book, the e-book and the audio book is now possible.

Nazis, spies, romance, and murder collide in prewar eastern Europe in a mesmerizing historical novel by the award-winning author of Oliva’s Garden.

It’s 1936. The seaside-resort village of Split on the Adriatic coast bustles. The tourist spots are booming, passenger steamers dot the harbor, and Jewish émigrés have found tenuous refuge from persecution. But as war in Europe looms, Split is also a nest of spies, fascists, and smugglers—and now, a locale suspiciously scouted by a German Reich film crew. Then one summer morning it becomes the scene of a murder investigation when a corpse is found entangled in fishing nets in the port.

New Publication: "Tesla oder die Vollendung der Kreise"

On September 21, 2023 the new German novel Tesla oder die Vollendung der Kreise has been published

Nikola Tesla, inventor between genius and madness, born with Serbian roots in what is now Croatia, a dazzling figure in the social life of New York around 1900, was legendary even during his lifetime. One of his admirers was the young Anton from Zadar, who was expelled from school after political activities against the Austrian emperor and emigrated to America with ten dollars in his pocket. There he quickly finds his feet, learns English, works as an interpreter in the anatomical museum of a German doctor on Broadway, and eventually studies medicine. He meets the old, lonely, whimsical Tesla, his idol, and becomes his friend in long conversations about his life and God and the world. But then a message from Europe reaches Anton: he is to return to take care of his old parents. So he sets off again, with his wife and children, into the poverty of neglected villages in the hinterland of Dalmatia shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. As a parting gift, Tesla confides in him the plans for a "peace weapon" and asks him to search for a lost portrait that will not reappear until 2006.

Träume und Kulissen published in Croatian translation

"Träume und Kulissen" is published in the Croatian translation by Bojana Bajić by Fraktura Publishing House from Zagreb in June 2022.

Review in Express (Croatian)

Interview in Večernji list (Croatian)

Brücke Berlin Theatre Award 2018

The Brücke Berlin Theatre Prize, awarded for the first time and endowed with two prizes of 5,000 euros, goes to the Serbian author Iva Brdar and her translator Alida Bremer for the play "Daumenregeln" (Rowohlt Theaterverlag), which received its German premiere at Schauspiel Stuttgart in June.

Jury member Jürgen Jakob Becker (Literarisches Colloquium Berlin) explains: „(...). In her play "Daumenregeln", Iva Brdar follows the hitchhiking tour of two young women to southern Eastern Europe. In a largely deserted landscape, the protagonists encounter figures that are as bizarre as they are sharply delineated, as they piece together a new existence from fragments of former life plans. The result is a surreal road movie; everyone is on the road, no one knows where from, no one knows where to. The haunting piece is written in vibrant verse, translated into evocative German by Alida Bremer.“

The award ceremony will take place on 25 September 2018 at 7 pm at the Deutsches Theater Berlin.

The Poet on the Errant Path. Handke in Context

Article by Alida Bremer, published in "Peter Handkes Jugoslawienkomplex".

About the book: For over 30 years, Yugoslavia has been one of the most important topoi in Peter Handke's work. It already appears as a literary landscape in Wiederholung (1986) and, since Abschied des Träumers vom Neunten Land (1991), also as an aesthetic and political obsession that runs as a deep trace through the Austrian author's notorious "travelogues" and other texts. Handke's literary depictions of the Yugoslav wars as well as his frequent omissions in interviews and public appearances have regularly led to media controversies and decisively shaped his image as a political author - most recently on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2019. The contributors to the anthology attempt to approach this phenomenon from poetological, sociological, political, media and cultural studies perspectives, taking greater account than usual of political and historical backgrounds in the former Yugoslavia.

Träume und Kulissen

A harbour town on the Adriatic as a backdrop for small and large tragedies and an age of dreams, with which some make business, others films, but few make their fortune.

Summer 1936: In Split, the "pearl of the sea" on the Adriatic coast, colourful hustle and bustle and frivolous ease reign. But increasingly, Jews on the run, communists and other opponents of the Nazi regime mingle with the tourists of the European haute bourgeoisie, and with them smugglers and spies from all over the world. German film crews arouse no less suspicion, even if the locals are proud that their city is considered a popular filming location for international cinematography. The beaches, cafés and pubs are full, in the harbour passenger liners and military ships lie alongside fishing boats - and one morning a corpse. There are few leads, and they lead in all directions. Mario Bulat begins to investigate, but in fact everyone already seems to know more than he does. Träume und Kulissen is a dazzling kaleidoscope of Mediterranean life in an overheated era, a social novel rich in tones and colours about a world on the brink of disaster despite all the promises of progress. And last but not least, this book is a literary declaration of love to a place of longing.

This novel was published in German and will be translated into English in 2024.

Tübingen Poetry Lectureship 2022

The 35th Tübingen Poetry Lectureship will take place from 13-18 November 2022. The University of Tübingen is pleased to welcome Ingo Schulze and Dževad Karahasan - together with Alida Bremer and Naser Šečerović - as guests in Tübingen this year!

Short portrait: Alida Bremer, born in Split/Croatia in 1959, lives in Münster as a freelance author and translator. She studied Comparative Literature, Romance Studies, Slavic Studies and German Studies in Belgrade/Serbia, Rome/Italy, Münster and Saarbrücken and earned her doctorate in Comparative Literature at the University of Saarbrücken. She has worked as a literary scholar, juror, curator and interpreter and has received numerous scholarships and awards for her publications as a writer - Oliva's Garden (2013/2017) and Dreams and Scenes (2021) - and translator from Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian, including Ivana Sajko, Edo Popović, Iva Brdar and Delimir Rešicki - among others, the 2018 International Literature Award of the House of World Cultures for contemporary literature in her translations..

More information (German).

The Rootless God - Theology of Emigrations

Article in Balkan Contextual Theology

Article written by Alida Bremer and Ivana Bodrožić on the roots of tradition, popular piety, language, literature, and reflections on faith. Published 2022.

Abstract

A series of political upheavals and economic hardships in the last 100-odd years have forced a large number of Croats to leave their birthplaces.

German Youth Theatre Award 2018

The German Youth Theatre Award 2018 goes to Dino Pešut (Croatia) for "Der (vorletzte) Panda oder Die Statik", translated by Alida Bremer.

In her laudatory speech for Fabrice Melquiot, Karola Marsch, representing the jury, praised the play as a great tragedy about love, power and claims to rule for children. The construction of the text is unusual in theatre for children and extremely remarkable: Melquiot uses mythical, archaic figures and creates a space for the children's characters that is untouchable by the outside world.

In the jury's laudation for Dino Pešut, Christoph Macha praised the play as one of the most political of current youth theatre. Using the example of social conflicts in Croatia, he said, it negotiates the great crises of democracy, turbo-capitalism, fear of foreigners and the loss of human values. The play makes it very clear in razor-sharp sentences and succinct replicas: People, we have to stand up!

Liebesroman awarded the International Literature Prize

sajko liebes roman IIvana Sajko leads us into a war between the kitchen and the bedroom: He, an unemployed humanist, is trying to change the world and write a romance novel. She, a passable actress, has quit her safe job in the theatre and is taking care of their common child. He is intoxicated, she is worried. They both circle around each other and towards the abyss.

"Ivana Sajko's powerful words create explosive brightness. Alida Bremer, the important mediator of Croatian literature into German, has found a stirring language for them. - The Jury"

Awarded the International Literature Prize 2018 (German)