Construct Utd

Because of good based and skilfully derived literary construct we believe in the stories even when the logical and empirical borders between fantasy and reality are erased.

About the book

In Construct Utd, her first collection of short stories, Šribar presents herself as wide-ranging author whose work is most skilfully constructed regardless of genre. The selected stories, divided into four sections, Homemade, Slippery, Deadly Serious and Beyond, could be described as narratives about domestic inconvenience converted to the fantastic by Eros and Thanatos, directly draw us in to make us protagonists, not just observers.

Šribar’s subtle humour, at the forefront of almost all of the collected stories, reflects her skilful storytelling and mastery of the balance between fantasy and everyday reality, and her skilfully derived literary constructs engender belief even when the logical and empirical borders between fantasy and reality are erased, as noted by Suzana Tratnik in the afterword.

In her interview for Bukla magazine, Šribar explained: ‘I don't think about how my characters appear to readers when I write, I just think about how they appear to me. The first thing I usually notice about people, no matter who they are, is what makes them unique and special. That’s how my protagonists appear.’

From author’s interview

I don't think about how my characters will appear to readers when I write. There are just like that inside of me. The first thing I usually notice about people, no matter who they are, is the feature that makes them unique and special. That’s how my protagonists appear.

—Luna J. Šribar, Bukla

Excerpt

‘Although…’

A naughty smile flashed his face. ‘…they locked the basement.’

‘Really?’

I became curious.

‘Yes, because people got laid there. Crazy people also have their needs, you know.’

We laughed out loud, the birdies in the park started to chirp.

About the author

Luna J. Šribar, born 1981, is the author of Antique Shop, a story of magic and a mystical antique shop where antiquities and human emotions are traded. Her first young adult novel, Grizolda and The Cat, nominated for the Slovenian literary Modra Ptica Prize in 2020, is the story of youthful Elsa and her friend Roland’s escape from their real life problems to the fantasy world Elsa creates with her drawings. She published Construct Utd, a collection of short stories, in 2020; gained her PhD in Anthropology from the Institutum Studorium Humanitas in the field of solidarity economy; worked in the NGO sector between 2005 and 2019, mainly for Kings of the Street, a self-help organization for the homeless people, as a researcher and project leader; co-founded the first Slovenian cooperative employing the homeless; and mainly devoted herself to writing since 2020.

Outstanding awards and distinctions

• 2017 – the winning short story of literary competition Spirala
• 2017 – the winning short story of literary competition for erotic literature Literos
• 2020 – shortlisted for Modra ptica Prize
• 2021 – the winning essay of competition of Disenz web portal

Books

Young adult novels

• Antique Shop / Starinarnica (2018)
• Grizolda and the Cat / Grizolda in Maček (announced for 2022)

Short story collection

• Construct Utd / Konstrukt d.b.o. (2020)