29.6.2012
Ivica Đikić, journalist and writer, won roman@tportal.hr award for his novel “Sanjao sam slonove” published by Ljevak. The most lucrative literary award in Croatia in the amount of HKR 100,000.00 net was awarded to him at the last night's ceremony held in Europa cinema. The award ceremony was followed by a cocktail party with a real musical treat by LJETNO KINO big band & Vlada Divljan.
The award was founded five years ago by one of the most visited Internet portals www.tportal.hr that recognized the importance of investment into culture and awarding writers.
The shorlist for the literary award for the best Croatian novel published in 2011 included five novels: “Drenje” by Luka Bekavac, “Sanjao sam slonove” by Ivica Đikić, “Ovdje neće biti čuda” by Goran Ferčec, “Kalendar Maja” by Zoran Ferić and “Bilo nam je tako lijepo” by Sibila Petlevski.
The decision on the winner of the competition was made by a jury of independent literary experts comprising: Ana Grbac (Presidend), Tomislav Brlek, Gordan Duhaček, Igor Mandić, Katarina Luketić, Miroslav Mićanović and Jadranka Pintarić.
The President of the Jury of Experts, Ana Grbac, presented the award and explained: “The novel ‘Sanjao sam slonove’ by Ivica Đikić talks about delicate events in the background of a transforming society and it surpasses the daily-political journalist engagement by a literary maturity of the narrative prose. The three plot lines with a wide time and spatial span and the anxieties of the pre-war, war and post-war time in Croatia are incorporated into a whole with a single topic that presents the analysis of social traumas as an interaction of extremes that are metaphorically presented by the terms in the title: even the non-material nature of dreams is inevitably pressured by the reality that has a weight of an elephant; in this case it includes emigrant underground, hypocrisies, war and organized and unorganized crime. By focusing on the frequent topic from the recent past, the novel by Ivica Đikić turns the fact that fictional form subordinates the plot to its needs on one hand, and that plot conditions it so substantially and structurally on the other into his focal point.
If we consider the fact suggested by Peter Sloterdijk that the repetition becomes effective after losing its innocence, “Sanjao sam slonove” as a novel that turns coping with the traumas of the social reality into problems of the narrative structure shows quintessentially that the price of dodging dangers of the activist one-track mind does not have to mean giving up a clearly articulated point of view.”
Alemka Lisinski, Editor-In-Chief of tportal mentioned the importance of this competition and congratulated to the winner: “First of all I would like to congratulate all the authors who applied for the competition, and especially to the winner and the finalists. We are proud and happy to have the opportunity as tportal to award excellent Croatian writers, promote literature and reading and follow the current cultural events in Croatia.”
This year, there were 52 applications for the award, and the authors, i.e. publishers of all novels in Croatian published by Croatian publishing companies during the last year were eligible to apply. Last year’s winner was the novel “Adio kauboju” (Algoritam) by Olja Savičević Ivančević, and in 2010 the award winner was Sibila Petlevski for her novel “Vrijeme laži” published by Fraktura. The earlier award-winners were Drago Glamuzina for his novel “Tri” (Profil) and Dalibor Šimpraga of his novel “Anastazija” (Durieux).