Two time award winner for the best novel
Feri Lainšček
The Untouchables
Shortlisted for the best slovenian novel 2008
General information
176 pages
Publishing House: Založba Mladinska knjiga
Publication date: September 2007
Feri Lainšček: Nedotakljivi/The Untouchables
Author’s biography
Feri Lainšček, a writer and a screenwriter, was born in 1959
In Dolenci. Today he lives and works in Murska Sobota.
His bibliography comprises more than a hundred books,
many of which have been translated into foreign languages.
Feri Lainšček is one of the most highly-esteemed and widely
read Slovenian authors.
He has received numerous awards for his work. In 1995 his novel Ki jo je megla prinesla
was awarded most prominent national award e.i. Prešeren Fund Award. He received
Kresnik e.i. an award for the best Slovenian novel twice: in 1992 for the novel Namesto
koga roža cveti and in 2007 for the novel Muriša. In 2001 his book of fairytales Mislice was
awarded Večernica, which is an award for the best Slovenian youth literary work and he has
Also received many others awards. Feri Lainšček’s works have been adapted for screen more
Often than works of any other Slovenian author. The movie Rooster's Breakfast based on his
novel won a number of awards at the Festival of Slovenian Film 2007 and has been a
resounding hit in Slovenian cinemas. Following on from the film's success, the director
And Feri Lainšček are already discussing a new movie to be based on The Untouchables.
Feri Lainšček: Nedotakljivi/The Untouchables
Summary
The Untouchables, a novel written by Feri Lainšček
for the Myths collection, an international editorial
project by Mladinska knjiga, speaks of four
generations of Roma people on their life journey
from horse thieves to stone grinders, smugglers
and eventually in the last generation, drug addicts.
The foreword to the book is a mythical story about
the three nails Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross
with. Four nails were forged by a Gypsy blacksmith
after every other blacksmith had refused to make
them. Hence the curse upon Roma people – their
eternal wandering all over the world, haunted by
the fourth remaining nail, always reminding them
of the evil deed they had done.
Feri Lainšček: Nedotakljivi/The Untouchables
Publisher’s presentation
Feri Lainšček has lived in the vicinity of a Roma village since his childhood, which is why he has
learnt to respect the Roma, and was never afraid that the 'Gypsies would snatch him at night
while sleeping'. Taken over by their spirit, he draws inspiration for his writing from the unique
Roma mythology, which is what prompted him to write The Untouchables.
"Did you see it too?“
This is the question that is posed to the story's protagonists
and which haunts the reader of The Untouchables.
Do we realy see, what is happening around us and to us? Do we understand, what freedom is?
This novel is a sparkling story about the fate of four generations of Balkan Romany, narrated
by Lutvija Belmoldo Aus Shangkai Gav. It is both an attempt to fundamentally understand the
Romany and their 'original sin', and a story about the banal yet cruel reality of the Romany's
life in Europe. The novel bares before us the dimension of the spiritual and physical reality
that is right next to us, yet the writer knows when to let silence do the talking and leave the
secret of the 'Gypsy soul' to the Romany themselves.
The Untouchables is a brilliant tale vibrating with the nomadic spirit of a man who finds
incredible resourcefulness and stubbornness to struggle through the hardships of life.
Feri Lainšček: Nedotakljivi/The Untouchables
Extract

Her large eyes brimmed with terror and tears.
“No, please! No!” her quivering mouth begged even after her strength had completely
deserted her and she only writhed like a gulping fish out of water. But at the very
moment when they could have reached for her without fear that she might scratch or
bite them, the men suddenly halted and went stock-still, as though petrified. The first
one, who had tripped her up, stopped with his hands raised above his head, as though
admitting defeat, and the second, older one, covered his mouth with his palm – and
thus they stayed. After a while, a silence started up all around them, the kind of
silence that had reigned before their encounter, only now perhaps more obvious and
more audible, and a strange peace settled on the plain, a peace the woman could not
understand. She looked around and saw there still wasn’t anyone who could have
scared the men off. She slowly got up and waited uncertainly, but her pursuers
remained stone-like.
She bent, pulled her skirt over her knees and smoothed it.
Then she took a step backwards, made a questioning pout, and softly, so as not to
awaken them from their miraculous stupefaction, stole away over the grass.
“Did you see it too?” Jorga Mirga asked under his breath after a while.
“I did,” Suli Barjaktari nodded in fear.
Translated by Tamara M. Soban
Feri Lainšček: Nedotakljivi/The Untouchables
Opinion 1/2
The tragicomical language and the story of The Untouchables are very convincing, but that is
Almost to be expected from such a well known name of contemporary slovenian literature. But
more than that, Lainšček opens up a very topical subject which conserns all European countries and
Our world in general. It raises the questions of freedom, minorities and all underprivileged people.
There are more than five million Romany settled unevenly in different European countries; a vast
majority is hosted by Romania while the smallest Roma population lives in Slovenia.
When we speak of Roma people there is generally a certain ambivalence involved. On one hand we
are fascinated by their freedom and by their way of life – which after taking a closer look is not so
full of freedom and pleasant as we have imagined. On the other hand we are in general consternated
by the idea of living a Romany kind of life ourselves or even watching or sharing it as their neighbours.
We daily experience and enjoy Roma culture or better said Roma culture not produced entirely by
Roma people. We are all familiar with the Roma film opus by Emir Kusturica which nourishes us with
certain symbols and music that work poetically and magically in a certain (Roma) context while a more
realistic approach or a different point of view will offer us an utterly different picture: malnutrition,
ignorance, diseases and poor health condition, idleness and many more, none of them romantic.
Lainšček’s novel is very penetrating because he is aware of these problems and shows us both
darker and brighter side of Romany life and suggests, that the only way toward better understanding
among different nationalities, ethnical cultures and minorities is deeper insight into their history,
customs and values. His literature is an excellent gateway for appreciating all the cultural
differences that unite us.
Feri Lainšček: Nedotakljivi/The Untouchables
Opinion 2/2
The established culture and Roma culture are on opposite river-banks. Even if Roma culture
represents a rewarding subject for sociological and anthropological studies and many doctoral theses
were written about their way of life and on what should/could be done in order to integrate/socialize
them, the concrete results are very meagre. Socialization requests a certain level of knowledge and
education which Roma people lack. There are huge problems to get children to the elementary school
not to mention secondary or higher schooling.
We can see that behind the curtains the story of Roma life is pretty black and that a free Gypsy is but
a myth. The Roma story tends to perpetuate itself. The new democracy and human rights will not
change the Roma way of life or make it better; perhaps the new Europe with open borders even
encourages them to change whatever little they had for the road and thus exclude themselves from
normal life even more. However this is a modern trend: the number of homeless people, which can
be described only as Roma of a different nationality is increasing and so do by the majority undesired
ethnical and social groups, the erased, the unemployed, the old, the Roma... they are all joining to
the Excluded in the long run.
Perhaps the Included will eventually measure their hearts but I fear that there will only be room for
Roma music, poetry, culture – and not for Roma people.