Billiards at the Hotel Dobray

In the northern Slovenian city of Murska Sobota stands the renowned Hotel Dobray, once the gathering place of townspeople of all nationalities and social strata who lived in this typical Pannonian panorama on the fringe of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Due to its historical and geographical particularities, the town had always been home to numerous ethnically and culturally mixed communities that gave it the charm and melos of Central-European identity. But now, in the thick of World War II, the town is occupied by the Hungarian army.

Franz Schwartz's wife, Ellsie has for the past month been preparing their son Isaac, a gifted violinist, for his first solo concert, which is to take place at Hotel Dobray. Isaac is to perform on his bar mitzvah and his 13th birthday on April 26, 1944. When the German army marches into town and forces all Jews to display yellow stars on their clothes, Ellsie advises her husband that the family should flee the town and escape to Switzerland. Schwartz promises her he will obtain forged documents, but not before Isaac performs his concert at the hotel.

A year later, in March 1945, Schwartz returns, on foot, from the concentration camp as one of the few survivors.

About the Author
Goran Vojnovic is a filmmaker and screenwriter. He co-wrote he film Good Luck Nedim!, which won the Heart of Sarajevo Award. He has directed three short films and one feature film. He is the author of Southern Scum Go Home! and When Jimmy Choo Meets Fidel Castro. Rawley Grau, originally from Baltimore, has lived in Ljubljana since 2001. His translation of Dusan Sarotar's Panorama was shortlisted for the 2017 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. His translation of A Science Not from the Earth won the AATSEEL Prize for Best Scholarly Translation in 2016.