Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

by Slobodan Novak

translated from the Croatian by Celia Hawkesworth

Dispossessed of her vast property on  the island of Rab by the Communist authorities of Yugoslavia, 100-year-old Madonna lies on her death bed. In the finely honed lyrical prose of a mid-20th-century master, Slobodan Novak explores family, religion, the individual, the state, duty, memory, and love in a manner reminiscent of Chekhov, Beckett, Borges and Kiš. 

On its release in 1968, Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh received every major literary award available in the Yugoslavia of its day, including the Matica Hrvatska Prize for the best book of prose, the Vladimir Nazor Prize, the Nin Prize for the best novel, and the Večernji List Critics’ Prize. It has subsequently gone through nine editions in Croatia and been translated into six languages around the world. It has also been  adapted to the stage (in 1974) and the screen (in 1971).

This translation was supported in part by a grant from the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs; and by the Croatian Ministry of Culture.