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Amalion is an independent multilingual scholarly publisher with the mission to disseminate innovative knowledge on Africa to strengthen the understanding of humanity.
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March 2003Wir wollen beide hier leben
Eine schwierige Freundschaft in Jerusalem
by Rifa'i, Amal; Ainbinder, Odelia; Tempel, Sylke / Deutsch Tempel, Sylke
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December 2004Wir wollen beide hier leben
Eine schwierige Freundschaft in Jerusalem
by Rifa'i, Amal; Ainbinder, Odelia / Deutsch Kühn, Julia; Deutsch Tempel, Sylke
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FictionWHY I CAN'T WRITE
How to survive in a world where you can’t pay rent, can’t afford to focus, be healthy or to remain principled. Dijana Matković tells a powerful story of searching for a room of her own in the late stages of capitalism.
by DIJANA MATKOVIĆ
It is a coming-of-age story for Generation Z. How to grow up or even live in a world where no steady jobs are available, you can’t pay your rent and can’t afford medical or living expenses. Moreover, it touches on how to be a socially engaged artist in such a world, and more so, a woman in a post-me too world? Dijana, a daughter of working-class immigrants, tells the story of her difficult childhood and adolescence, how should became a journalist and later a writer in a society full of prejudices, glass ceilings and obstacles. How she gradually became a stereotypical ‘success story’, even though she still struggles with writing, because she can’t afford a ‘room of her own’. Dijana is a daughter of working-class immigrants, who came to Slovenia in the eighties in search of a better future. The family is building a house but is made redundant from the local factory when Yugoslavia is in the midst of an economic crisis. When her parents get divorced, Dijana, her older sister and mother struggle with basic needs. She is ashamed of their poverty, her classmates bully her because of her immigrant status, but mostly because of her being ‘white trash’. In the local school she meets teachers with prejudices against immigrants, but is helped by a librarian who spots her talent. When Dijana goes to secondary school, she moves in with her older sister who lives in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Her sister is into rave culture and Dijana starts to explore experimenting with drugs, music and dance. At the secondary school, she is again considered ‘the weird kid’, as she isn’t enough of a foreigner for other immigrant kids because she is from the country, yet she isn’t Slovenian enough for other native kids. She falls even deeper into drug addiction, fails the first year of school and has to move back to live with her mother. She takes on odd jobs to make ends meet. Whilst working as a waitress she encounters sexism and sexual violence from customers and abuse from the boss. She finishes night school and graduates. She meets many ‘lost’ people of her generation along the way, who tell her their stories about precarious, minimum wage jobs, lack of opportunities, expensive rent, etc. Dijana writes for numerous newspapers but loses or quits her job, because she isn’t allowed to write the stories she wants or because of the bad working conditions or the blatant sexual harassment. Due to the high rent in the capital, Dijana has to move to the countryside to live with her mother. She feels lonely there, struggles with anxiety and cannot write a second book, because she is constantly under pressure to make a living. She realises that she must persevere regardless of the obstacles, she must follow her inner truth and by writing about it, try to create a community of like-minded people, a community of people who support each other – all literature/art is social.
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January 2013The Madmen of Bethlehem
by Osama Alaysa
Adopting the story-within-a-story structure of Arabian Nights, author Osama Alaysa weaves together a collection of stories portraying centuries of oppression endured by the Palestinian people. This remarkable novel eloquently brings together fictional characters alongside real-life historical figures in a complex portrayal of Bethlehem and the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in the West Bank. The common thread connecting each tale is madness, in all its manifestations. Psychological madness, in the sense of clinical mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, finds expression alongside acts of social and political madness. Together, these accounts of individuals and communities provide a gateway into the histories of the city of Bethlehem and Palestine. They paint a picture of the centuries of political oppression that the Palestinian people have endured, from the days of the Ottoman Empire to the years following the Oslo Accords, and all the way to 2012 (when the novel was written). The novel is divided into three sections, each containing multiple narratives. The first section, “The Book of a Genesis,” describes the physical spaces and origins of Bethlehem and Dheisheh Refugee Camp. These stories span the 19th and 20th centuries, transitioning smoothly from one tale to another to offer an intricate interpretation of the identity of these places. The second section, “The Book of the People Without a Book”, follows parallel narratives of the lives of the patients in a psychiatric hospital in Bethlehem, the mad men and women roaming the streets of the city, and those imprisoned by the Israeli authorities. All suffer abuse, but they also reaffirm their humanity through the relationships, romantic and otherwise, that they form. The third and final section, “An Ephemeral Book,” follows individuals—Palestinian and non-Palestinian—who are afflicted by madness following the Oslo Accords in 1993. These stories give voice to the perspectives of the long-marginalized Palestinian population, narrating the loss of land and the accompanying loss of sanity in the decades of despair and violence that followed the Nakba, the 1948 eviction of some 700,000 Palestinians from their homes. The novel’s mad characters—politicians, presidents, doctors, intellectuals, ordinary people and, yes, Dheisheh and Bethlehem themselves—burst out of their narrative threads, flowing from one story into the next. Alaysa’s crisp, lucid prose and deft storytelling chart a clear path through the chaos with dark humor and wit. The result is an important contribution to fiction on the Palestinian crisis that approaches the Palestinians, madness, and Palestinian spaces with compassion and depth.
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Children's & YAJanuary 2015Hatless
by Lateefa Buti / Illustrated by Doha Al Khteeb
Kuwaiti children’s book author Lateefa Buti’s well-crafted and beautifully illustrated children’s book, Hatless, encourages children (ages 6-9) to think independently and challenge rigid traditions and fixed rituals with innovation and creativity. The main character is a young girl named Hatless who lives in the City of Hats. Here, all of the people are born with hats that cover their heads and faces. The world inside of their hats is dark, silent, and odorless. Hatless feels trapped underneath her own hat. She wants to take off her hat, but she is afraid, until she realizes that whatever frightening things exist in the world around her are there whether or not she takes off her hat to see them. So Hatless removes her hat. As Hatless takes in the beauty of her surroundings, she cannot help but talk about what she sees, hears, and smells. The other inhabitants of the city ostracize her because she has become different from them. It is not long before they ask her to leave the City of Hats. Rather than giving up or getting angry, Hatless feels sad for her friends and neighbors who are afraid to experience the world outside of their hats. She comes up with an ingenious solution: if given another chance, she will wear a hat as long it is one she makes herself. The people of the City of Hats agree, so Hatless weaves a hat that covers her head and face but does not prevent her from seeing the outside world. She offers to loan the hat to the other inhabitants of the city. One by one, they try it on and are enchanted by the beautiful world around them. Since then, no child has been born wearing a hat. The people celebrate by tossing their old hats in the air. By bravely embracing these values, Hatless improves her own life and the lives of her fellow citizens. Buti’s language is eloquent and clear. She strikes a skilled narrative balance between revealing Hatless’s inner thoughts and letting the story unfold through her interactions with other characters. Careful descriptions are accompanied by beautiful illustrations that reward multiple readings of the book.
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In the Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat
by Iman Mersal
‘In the Footsteps of Enayat Al-Zayyat’ is a book that traces the life of an unknown Egyptian writer who died in 1963, four years before the release of her only novel. The book does not follow a traditional style to present the biography of Al-Zayyat, or to restore consideration for a writer who was denied her rights. Mersal refuses to present a single story as if it is the truth and refuses to speak on behalf of the heroine or deal with her as a victim, but rather takes us on a journey to search for the individuality that is often marginalised in Arab societies. The book searches for a young woman whose family burned all her personal documents, including the draft of her second novel, and was completely absent in the collective archives. The narration derives its uniqueness from its ability to combine different literary genres such as fictional narration, academic research, investigation, readings, interviews, fiction, and fragments of the autobiography of the author of the novel. The book deals with the differences between the individuality of Enayat, who was born into an aristocratic family, graduated from a German school and wrote her narration during the domination of the speeches of the Nasserism period, and that of Mersal, a middle-class woman who formed her consciousness in the 1990s and achieved some of what Enayat dreamed of achieving but remained haunted by her tragedy. The book deals with important political, social and cultural issues, as we read the history of psychiatry in modern Egypt through the pills that Enayat swallowed to end her life on 3 January 1963, while her divorce summarises the continuing suffering of women with the Personal Status Law. We also see how the disappearance of a small square from her neighbourhood reveals the relationship between modernity and bureaucracy, and how the geography of Cairo changes, obliterated as the result of changes in political regimes. In the library of the German Archaeological Institute, where Enayat worked, we find an unwritten history of World War II and, in her unpublished second novel, we see unknown stories of German scientists fleeing Nazism to Cairo. We also see how Enayat’s neglected tomb reveals the life story of her great-grandfather, Ahmed Rashid Pasha, and the disasters buried in the genealogy tree.
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Children's & YAJanuary 2011The Boy Who Saw the Color of Air
by Abdo Wazen
In his first YA novel, cultural journalist and author Abdo Wazen writes about a blind teenager in Lebanon who finds strength and friendship among an unlikely group. Growing up in a small Lebanese village, Bassim’s blindness limits his engagement with the materials taught in his schools. Despite his family’s love and support, his opportunities seem limited. So at thirteen years old, Bassim leaves his village to join the Institute for the Blind in a Beirut suburb. There, he comes alive. He learns Braille and discovers talents he didn’t know he had. Bassim is empowered by his newfound abilities to read and write. Thanks to his newly developed self-confidence, Bassim decides to take a risk and submit a short story to a competition sponsored by the Ministry of Education. After winning the competition, he is hired to work at the Institute for the Blind. At the Institute, Bassim, a Sunni Muslim, forms a strong friendship with George, a Christian. Cooperation and collective support are central to the success of each student at the Institute, a principle that overcomes religious differences. In the book, the Institute comes to symbolize the positive changes that tolerance can bring to the country and society at large. The Boy Who Saw the Color of Air is also a book about Lebanon and its treatment of people with disabilities. It offers insight into the vital role of strong family support in individual success, the internal functioning of institutions like the Institute, as well as the unique religious and cultural environment of Beirut. Wazen’s lucid language and the linear structure he employs result in a coherent and easy-to-read narrative. The Boy Who Saw the Color of Air is an important contribution to a literature in which people with disabilities are underrepresented. In addition to offering a story of empowerment and friendship, this book also aims to educate readers about people with disabilities and shed light on the indispensable roles played by institutions like the Institute.
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Picture booksThe Lilac Girl
by Ibtisam Barakat (author), Sinan Hallak (illustrator)
Inspired by the life story of Palestinian artist, Tamam Al-Akhal, The Lilac Girl is the sixth book for younger readers by award-winning author, Ibtisam Barakat. The Lilac Girl is a beautifully illustrated short story relating the departure of Palestinian artist and educator, Tamam Al-Akhal, from her homeland, Jaffa. It portrays Tamam as a young girl who dreams about returning to her home, which she has been away from for 70 years, since the Palestinian exodus. Tamam discovers that she is talented in drawing, so she uses her imagination to draw her house in her mind. She decides one night to visit it, only to find another girl there, who won’t allow her inside and shuts the door in her face. Engulfed in sadness, Tamam sits outside and starts drawing her house on a piece of paper. As she does so, she notices that the colors of her house have escaped and followed her; the girl attempts to return the colors but in vain. Soon the house becomes pale and dull, like the nondescript hues of bare trees in the winter. Upon Tamam’s departure, she leaves the entire place drenched in the color of lilac. As a children’s story, The Lilac Girl works on multiple levels, educating with its heart-rending narrative but without preaching, accurately expressing the way Palestinians must have felt by not being allowed to return to their homeland. As the story’s central character, Tamam succeeds on certain levels in defeating the occupying forces and intruders through her yearning, which is made manifest through the power of imaginary artistic expression. In her mind she draws and paints a picture of hope, with colors escaping the physical realm of her former family abode, showing that they belong, not to the invaders, but the rightful occupiers of that dwelling. Far from being the only person to have lost their home and endured tremendous suffering, Tamam’s plight is representative of millions of people both then and now, emphasizing the notion that memories of our homeland live with us for eternity, no matter how far we are from them in a physical sense. The yearning to return home never subsides, never lessens with the passing of time but, with artistic expression, it is possible to find freedom and create beauty out of pain.
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Children's & YAThe Dinoraf
by Hessa Al Muhairi
An egg has hatched, and what comes out of it? A chicken? No. A turtle? No. It’s a dinosaur. But where is his family? The little dinosaur searches the animal kingdom for someone who looks like him and settles on the giraffe. In this picture book by educator and author Hessa Al Muhairi, with illustrations by Sura Ghazwan, a dinosaur sets out in search of animals like him. He finds plenty of animals, but none that look the same...until he meets the giraffe. This story explores identity and belonging and teaches children about accepting differences in carefully crafted language.
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Fiction2022The End of the Desert
by Said Khatibi
On a nice fall day of 1988, Zakiya Zaghwani was found lying dead at the edge of the desert, giving way to a quest to discover the circumstances surrounding her death. While looking for whoever was involved in the death of the young singer, nearby residents discover bit by bit their involvement in many things other than the crime itself. ///The story takes place in a town near the desert. And as with Khatibi’s previous novels, this one is also marked by a tight plot, revolving around the murder of a singer who works in a hotel. This sets off a series of complex investigations that defy easy conclusions and invite doubt about the involvement of more than one character. /// Through the narrators of the novel, who also happen to be its protagonists, the author delves into the history of colonialism and the Algerian War of Independence and its successors, describing the circumstances of the story whose events unfold throughout the month. As such, the characters suspected of killing the singer are not only accused of a criminal offense, but are also concerned, as it appears, with the great legacy that the War of Independence left, from different aspects.///The novel looks back at a critical period in the modern history of Algeria that witnessed the largest socio-political crisis following its independence in 1988. While the story avoids the immediate circumstances of the war, it rather invokes the events leading up to it and tracks its impact on the social life, while capturing the daily life of vulnerable and marginalized groups. /// Nonetheless, those residents’ vulnerability does not necessarily mean they are innocent. As it appears, they are all involved in a crime that is laden with symbolism and hints at the status of women in a society shackled by a heavy legacy of a violent, wounded masculinity. This approach to addressing social issues reflects a longing to break loose from the stereotypical discourse that sets heroism in a pre-defined mold and reduces the truth to only one of its dimensions.
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The ArtsFebruary 2022"I am Jugoslovenka!"
Feminist performance politics during and after Yugoslav Socialism
by Jasmina Tumbas, Amelia Jones, Marsha Meskimmon
"I am Jugoslovenka" argues that queer-feminist artistic and political resistance were paradoxically enabled by socialist Yugoslavia's unique history of patriarchy and women's emancipation. Spanning performance and conceptual art, video works, film and pop music, lesbian activism and press photos of female snipers in the Yugoslav wars, the book analyses feminist resistance in a range of performative actions that manifest the radical embodiment of Yugoslavia's anti-fascist, transnational and feminist legacies. It covers celebrated and lesser-known artists from the 1970s to today, including Marina Abramovic, Sanja Ivekovic, Vlasta Delimar, Tanja Ostojic, Selma Selman and Helena Janecic, along with music legends Lepa Brena and Esma Redzepova. "I am Jugoslovenka" tells a unique story of women's resistance through the intersection of feminism, socialism and nationalism in East European visual culture.
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March 2019Amal and the most important journey of her life
by Carolina Montenegro and Renato Moriconi (translated by Lyn Miller-Lachmann
“How would it be for a child to cross oceans and borders all alone? “ This is what this surprising book called “AMAL – and The Most Important Journey of Her Life” leads young readers to imagine. For some children, it’s an unthinkable possibility. For hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied refugee children, a harsh reality. The book, published in two formats – app-book and printed edition - has support from UNCHR, the UN Refugee Agency. Written by foreign correspondent Carolina Montenegro and with visual narrative by Renato Moriconi, “Amal” is a tribute to refugee children.
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Children's & YANovember 2020 - April 2021I Will Live at Peace
by Dr. Issam Smeir, Luma Azar. Illustrator: Hanane Kai
AMAL (Hope) Series Almost 500 million children live in an area of conflict or disaster, 50 million of them were displaced. Prolonged exposure to war and uncertainty put many children in a state of ‘toxic stress’, with hugely detrimental effects. If left untreated, the long-term consequences are likely to be even greater, affecting children’s mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing for the rest of their lives. A series of nine specialized books dealing with the topic of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This Bibliotherapy series was written and designed based on PTSD therapy modality directed at children who suffer psycho-social challenges. The books are written in an adventurous style with a clinical connection that introduces the child to various symptoms, providing methods for dealing with them. It also presents coping mechanisms that help the child deal with the symptoms to have improvements throughout the stages of treatment. It also includes activities at the end of each book for caregivers to use with the child. Story 2: I Will Live at Peace Ever Since the terrible thing happened to Saleem and his family, he has been seeing nightmares which affected his ability to concentrate on his studies. And therefore, Saleem gets scared all over again and relives the incident every time he is reminded of the incident: any image, or sound, or scent, even any word. One day Saleem meets someone who has also gone through a terrible thing, and that person had felt exactly like he is feeling. From this experience, Saleem realizes that not everything that scares him is real danger and remembering the terrible incident, is by no means a re-occurrence of it. Saleem feels relieved now; he understands that he can live at peace without constant fear.
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Children's & YANovember 2020 - April 2021I Will Be Alright
by Dr. Issam Smeir, Luma Azar. Illustrator: Hanane Kai
AMAL (Hope) Series Almost 500 million children live in an area of conflict or disaster, 50 million of them were displaced. Prolonged exposure to war and uncertainty put many children in a state of ‘toxic stress’, with hugely detrimental effects. If left untreated, the long-term consequences are likely to be even greater, affecting children’s mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing for the rest of their lives. A series of nine specialized books dealing with the topic of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This Bibliotherapy series was written and designed based on PTSD therapy modality directed at children who suffer psycho-social challenges. The books are written in an adventurous style with a clinical connection that introduces the child to various symptoms, providing methods for dealing with them. It also presents coping mechanisms that help the child deal with the symptoms to have improvements throughout the stages of treatment. It also includes activities at the end of each book for caregivers to use with the child. Story 1: I will be Alright Following the distressing events that Saleem’s family went through, they move to a new town. Saleem finds himself a stranger to the home, the school, and the neighborhood. What made matters even worse, is that he already felt like he was a stranger to himself after undergoing these bad events. Saleem experiences various difficulties, and there are many things that bother him. Nevertheless, he learns something important about himself, gets to know good people, and finds himself approaching an exciting adventure that awaits him. This gives him some hope and a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
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Children's & YASeptember 2020Amazing Women of the Middle East
25 Stories to Inspire Girls Everywhere
by Wafa' Tarnowska
The first and only book about trailblazing women of the Middle East, by award winning Wafa' Tarnowska. 25 fascinating mini biographies, including those of Cleopatra, Zenobia, singer Fairuz and human rights lawyer Amal Clooney. Their work covers sports (Zahra Lari, UAE iceskater), film making (Nadine Labaki, Lebanon), mathematician (Manahel Thabet, Yemen). Beautiful illustrations of all the women by talents including Hoda Hadadi are complemented by a simple map and a Glossary of terms. A wonderful read 'Guaranteed to inspire' - Kirkus Reviews.
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August 2020The Doors of Eden
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The world is stranger and more dangerous than they’d thought. Lee’s best friend Mal went missing four years ago on Bodmin Moor, when the pair were chasing rumours of monsters. Now Mal is back, but where has she been? Who is she working for? When government physicist Kay Amal Khan is attacked, the investigation leads MI5’s Julian Sabreur deep into terrifying new territory, where he clashes with mysterious agents of an unknown power. Julian’s only clue is some grainy footage of a woman who supposedly died on Bodmin Moor. Khan’s extradimensional research was purely theoretical, until she found cracks between our world and parallel earths where monsters live. These cracks are getting wider every day, who knows what might creep through? What will happen when those walls come crashing down?
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March 2020Gelobtes Land - Leev
LEEV
by Christine Heimannsberg
Dytopische Climate-Fiction: Leben oder Überleben: Landesweit gesucht und in die Isolation der Berge gezwungen, muss die 18-jährige Lore sich den sogenannten Aussteigern im Widerstand gegen das Oberhaupt der Neuen Welt anschließen. Der weist jegliche Mitschuld an einem skrupellosen Mord von sich und bezichtigt hingegen die Anführerin der Rebellen der Lüge und Manipulation. Ein Kampf um die Wahrheit beginnt. Lore wähnt sich auf der richtigen Seite, bis sie auf Geheimnisse stößt, die nicht nur ihre, sondern die Sicherheit der gesamten Neuen Welt bedrohen. LEEV – Der dritte Band zur Trilogie über Hoffnung, Glaube und Liebe in einem von Klimawandel und Machtspielen geprägten Europa der Zukunft.
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Agriculture & farmingJanuary 2013Remote Sensing Applications in Dryland Natural Resource Management
by Mahesh Kumar Gaur
Arid and semi-arid areas are now facing a threefold holistic crisis:economic, food, and climate.What has emerged from these crises is the vital importance of inter-linkages among them on the one hand, and the missed opportunities in putting these pieces together on the other. This book has tried to explore these challenges though in-depth discussions of the individual. It is anticipated to inspire a forward looking debate that looks at the lessons from the past and points to actions for the future. Expertise views have been shared scientists and persons of eminence on the national and state level challenges with futuristic remedial approaches.
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Biography & True StoriesTHE PATH
by NEJC ZAPLOTNIK
“Anyone looking for a goal will remain empty when it will be reached, but whoever finds a way, will always carry the goal inside.” Nejc Zaplotnik THE PATH is a novel by Slovenian author and climber Nejc Zaplotnik (1952-1983). It was first published in Ljubljana 1981. The book narrates, in a novelized way, Zaplotnik’s life and experiences as an alpinist in postwar Slovenia, culminating in the ascension of both Makalu and Everest. It is 41 years since Andrej Štremfelj and Nejc Zaplotnik made history as the first Slovenians who reached the summit of the highest mountain in the world. By 1979, the summit of Mount Everest had been reached by every major ridge, yet a large expedition from Yugoslavia arrived to top their last achievement of making the first ascent of Makalu South Face. The West Ridge of Everest was a long unconventional line to the top. It was first climbed by the Americans in 1963, and is still well celebrated in the United States today. Except the Americans climbed only the upper half. The Yugoslavians came to traverse it all starting at the base, low in the Lho La pass. Like many national expeditions in those days, it was huge. It included 25 Yugoslavian mountaineers, 19 Sherpas, three cooks, three kitchen boys, two mail runners, 700 porters and 18 tons of gear. The ascent had to overcome a steep and severe gap, which required a winch to overcome so it was possible to haul the gear over the broken portion of the ridge. All efforts and ingenuity combined, the Yugoslavians positioned three Slovenian climbers at Camp V who were close to each other, Nejc Zaplotnik, Andrej Stremfelj, and Andrej’s brother, Marko Stremfelj. The aim of the expedition was to climb the West Ridge, first time in history. An expedition that worked in the spirit of a time when collective consciousness ruled to achieve a goal would not work as it did if it were not logistically and organizationally well managed. From Khumbu Glacier at 5350 m, where the base camp was located, rises 700m high rock wall of the Lho La saddle, followed by a 1200-meter-high slope of the Western Shoulder, continuing into a 2500-meter long, laid but sharp and windy ridge, at the end of which is the beginning of the steep and vibrant peak of the Everest Pyramid. Because the wall of the Lho-La saddle was overhanging in the upper part, cargo could not be carried on the back, so Stefan Marenče constructed a manual ropeway at home, with the help of which more than 5 tonnes of equipment was used for the altitude supply of the camps. The goal of the expedition was reached on 13 May 1979 at 13.51, when Andrej Štremfelj and Nejc Zaplotnik stood as the first Slovenes on the roof of the world. “We sit by the Chinese pyramid and we don’t know what to do!” (Nejc Zaplotnik) On May 15, 1979 at 2.30pm, Stane Belak-Schrauf, Croat Stipe Bozic and Sherpa Ang Phu also reached the summit. Ang Phu accidentally slipped 2000 meters deep onto the Chinese side when descending. Format: 18,8 x 12,5 cm 282 pages Paperback
