About a book
It Happened on the First of September (Or Some Other Time)
Original title: Stalo sa prvého septembra (alebo inokedy)
Genre: novel
Slovak edition: Kalligram
Foreign editions: 14
Czech (HOST – vydavatelství 2010), Arabian (Dar AL HIWAR Publishing and distributing, Syria 2011), Hungarian (Kalligram 2011), Croatian (DISPUT 2011), Slovenian (KUD Sodobnost International 2012), Polish (GOOD BOOKS/ Ksiažkove Klimaty 2013), Bulgarian (ERGO Publishing House 2013), Macedonian (Ars Lamina 2014), German (WIESER Verlag Austria), Rumanian (CASA CARTII DE STIINTA 2016, Italian (Safara Editore de Guido Giuseppe 2017), French (GAIA 2019), English (THREE STRING BOOKS,USA 2020), Albanian (OMBRA GVG 2023)
Theatrical adaptation: Theater V Dlouhé, Prague Czech Republic, Slovak National Theater, Bratislava, Slovakia
Radio adaptation: Czech Radio - Vltava, Prague, Czech Republic, RTVS – Devín, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
CONTENT
This historical novel covering the years from 1938 to 1968 tells the story of three friends who compete for the love of the same woman. Their individual stories are unsteady little boats in the turbulent storm of historical events: the Munich Agreement, the Vienna Awards, World War II, anti-Jewish legislation, the German occupation, the arrival of Soviet troops at the end of the war, the post-war expulsions, the communist putsch of February 1948, the 1950s political show trials, the 1968 reform movement and the Soviet invasion of August 1968. Their “fight” then continues for the next thirty years in parallel to Slovakia´s fight for its place in the history of Europe. It Happened on the First of September (Or Some Other Time) is a novel about love and how far it was possible under the powers-that-be.
REVIEWS
“Anyone could come up with a quasi-romantic story. However, Rankov has the most revolutionary understanding of Slovak history, better said the history of Slovakia, which is reflected in the history of the characters and their destinies: they are not predetermined by their ethnicity, but their origin plays a crucial role in the novel's vicissitudes. They rush into historical cataclysms with subjectivist passion and without awareness of the consequences. Pavol Rankov nonchalantly presented probably the most meaningful challenge to the Slovak novel. If he has what it takes to accept it, Slovak literature has something to look forward to. If not, Rankov's novel will remain a value that - as usual - will lack procedural contexts for further evaluation. Even so, it will remain a constitutive prosaic performance that crossed the thresholds of what is permitted.”
Alexander Halvoník, Knižná revue, Slovak Republic
“An excellent contribution to the work of memory and the examination of conscience not only of the populations of the former Soviet bloc, but of all of Europe".
Le Jury of the fourteenth European Book Prize, Figaro, France
“However, It happened on the first of September does not want to be a realistic historical novel, in which known ("real") history is formed through the stories of fictional characters. In the spirit of postmodernism, he dissolves the distinction between "fictional" and "real" and creates a game in which "big" and "small history" come into rivalry. By means of parody, hyperbole, and grotesque, he suggests that the authentic past does not exist, because only the mediated, textual one comes to us.”
Dobrota Pucherová, Knižná revue, Slovak republic
“First, it must be recognized that Pavol Rankov honestly worked on his novel in historical realities. He tries to empathically meet people and a time he has not experienced.
His storytelling also deserves an award. He is sovereign, anchored in time and space, while occasionally indulging in free trips to the realm of burlesque - "fairy tale" portraits of Central European papalášes Horthy or Gottwald. Pavol Rankov tries to come to terms with his parents' generation in a novel, especially with what history has imposed on it, what it had to deal with, what it had to face. However, he does not want to be reverent.
We must deal with a narrator who does not need to rewrite history with a novel - for example in the style of Jáchym Topol - but who needs to give it his own interpretation. But one that respects the rules of the novel genre and its needs.”
Jiří Trávnicek , Ihned, Czech Republic
“The story of the generation, which the socialist regime did not allow to live and love fully, can be read in one breath. What Happened on the First of September can undoubtedly be understood as a peculiar piece of history according to one non-conformist "truth lover", but above all it is a brilliant work of contemporary Slovak literature. It can be expected that, thanks to its qualities, it will soon become an important part of literary history.
Overall rating: 100%”
Ema Stašová, Právo, Czech Republic
EXTRACT
EPISODE 1938
At the end of the 1930s, only a handful of small towns in Czechoslovakia boasted a public swimming pool. Levice was one of them.
The first of September 1938 was a sunny day, and almost everyone was at the pool: adults with and without children, teenagers and retirees, locals as well as people from nearby villages, Hungarians, Slovaks, Czechs, Jews, Gypsies, the family of the German Barthel and the family of the Bulgarian Rankov. There were democrats, liberals, conservatives, monarchists, socialists, nationalists, communists, and fascists. Only the anarchist Varga was in Spain.
Peter, Honza, and Gabriel were no exception. Squinting in the afternoon sun, they sat on a short concrete wall and dangled their feet. Once in a while they spat thick saliva from their parched mouths. They were enjoying a carefree afternoon on the first day of the school year because no homework had been assigned yet, and they were admiring their classmate, Mária Belajová. The young beauty was sitting nearby with her parents and her younger brother Jurko.
Normally she wore her hair up in a long ponytail, but today it was down, drying in thick strands.
“Hair the color of wild honey,” said Honza.
Every now and then Honza liked to read his sister’s romance novels. The latest one she had bought was titled Quivering Hearts. Peter and Gabriel had come to terms with Honza borrowing similes from writers and using them to describe Mária’s beauty. They couldn’t have said it better themselves anyway.
Mária took out a plum from a small bag and put it in her mouth with her long fingers.
Gabriel sighed. “She has such gorgeous lips.”
“Burgundy… crimson…” Honza slipped into Czech as he tried to find the right word.
“Not crimson, carmine,” Peter said in Hungarian. As usual, Slovak, Czech, and Hungarian intermingled in their conversation.
As she chewed, the skin on her cheeks stretched and relaxed. Then she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and forcefully spat out the stone. It flew about three feet before it landed on her brother’s head.
“Mara, you stupid cow!” Jurko hurled the stone back at Mária.
Website made by @monisrll © 2023