The collection Fairground Magician brings together stories about love fulfilled and unfulfilled, about things that are visible in the everyday world and values that are perceptible only at exceptional moments. The narration moves from apparent realism to other genres; from crime fiction or thriller to erotic prose. Memories, intimations and premonitions are infused in these stories with a tranquillity that accepts what fate brings, even when efforts are made to change it, as in the stories Pockets Full of Stones or Nosedive.

Lengold uses eroticism as a natural ingredient of human life, as an integrated tension consisting of two inseparable aspects - body and soul - energising stories like Love Me Tender, Zugzwang, Wanderings, and Aurora Borealis. In Fairground Magician, Lengold is a lucid observer of minute details and subtle emotional shifts. In stories like It Could Have Been Me, Shadow, or Ophelia, Get Thee to a Nunnery, she manages to leap over the wall between the bodily surface and the human interior in a very distinctive way. No matter how common are the situations she depicts - whether it be broken marriages, unfulfilled expectations or the motives of forlorn lovers - Lengold is constantly searching for the authentic, finding it within the sophisticated irony which is a trademark of her fiction.

Jelena Lengold is a storyteller, novelist and poet. She has published five books of poetry, one novel (Baltimore) and four books of short stories, including Rain-soaked Lions, Lift and Fairground Magician, which won her the European Prize for Literature in 2011. Lengold works as a journalist and an editor at Radio Belgrade.

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About the Author
Jelena Lengold is a storyteller, novelist and a poet. She has published six books of poetry, one novel (Baltimore, 2003, 2011) and four books of stories, including Pokisli lavovi (Rain-soaked Lions, 1994), Lift (1999) and Vasarski madionicar (The Fairground Magician, 2008, 2009). The latter collection won her the European Union Prize for Literature, 2011. She has been represented in several anthologies of poetry and stories, and her works have been translated into several languages. Lengold worked as a journalist and an editor for ten years in the cultural department of Radio Belgrade and subsequently worked as a project coordinator in the Conflict Management programme of Nansenskolen Humanistic Academy in Lillehammer, Norway. She now lives in Belgrade, where she works as a freelance journalist and writer.

Reviews
"Fairground Magician is a wonderful collection of short stories. Sensuous, charming, witty and urbane, Jelena Lengold's stories of complex relationships and passions are both highly literary and highly readable. This collection has already won a number of European prizes: it deserves to be discovered and treasured by the British readers." Vesna Goldsworthy, author of Chernobyl Strawberries and Inventing Ruritania "Fairground Magician is a collection of thirteen tales revolving around the various faces of the Gods of love, whether this is Eros, who represents love, sexual passion and naughty thoughts or Yue-Lao, who binds two people together with an invisible red string - it doesn't matter, they will find themselves reflected within this book's pages." Review - Gary Moon, Parrish Lantern "Fairground Magician' is a collection of short stories showcasing a breadth of imagination and skill. Like a painter utilising different techniques to create individual artworks, Lengold employs a variety of approaches in her stories which truly feel like brushstrokes on canvas." Andjelka Grubisic BRITIC online magazine


Awards
Winner of European Union Prize for Literature 2011.



Book Information
ISBN 9781908236104
Author Jelena Lengold
Format Paperback
Page Count 160
Imprint Istros Books
Publisher Istros Books