Lilijana Homovec’s debut novel, Someone Always Leaves First (Nekdo vedno odide prvi), tells the story of Lili, an independent woman in her mature years who, following the breakdown of her marriage, has built a new world for herself – her own home, her friendships, and a flower shop called Lilija, which also provides her with financial independence.
When the younger Leon enters her life, the novel raises questions that literature still too rarely brings to the forefront: love and sexuality in later life, the ageing body, illness, age differences, independence, childlessness, and society’s expectations of women.
Homovec, previously known primarily as a poet, retains her distinctive sensitivity to imagery, nature, and the inner transformations of her characters in her prose. Someone Always Leaves First is thus a love story, but even more so a novel about vulnerability, togetherness, and the courage to risk intimacy again, even later in life.
🔴 SELECTED FOR THE PRIMORCI BEREMO 2025 READING PROJECT
The novel Someone Always Leaves First was selected for Primorci beremo 2025, one of Slovenia’s most prominent regional initiatives promoting the reading of Slovenian literature. The book’s presentation begins with a very simple sentence:
“Love can happen later in life, too.”
Read the book presentation on the Primorci beremo website
About the Novel
Gabriela Babnik Ouattara: A Body Illuminated by a Gentle Inner Light
The accompanying essay highlights, above all, the unusual self-sufficiency of the novel’s protagonist. Following the breakdown of her marriage, Lila is not portrayed as a woman waiting for someone to rescue her, but as someone who has created her own way of being.
Her romantic relationship with Leon is therefore not a “reward” for her loneliness, but a test of her newly acquired freedom.
“What is exceptional about the novel Someone Always Leaves First is that its author possesses the rare ability to bring thought and situation together.”
At the heart of the novel lies the vulnerability that accompanies every genuine intimacy:
“Throughout this process, it is one of the most beautiful novels about togetherness.”
The accompanying essay, A Body Illuminated by a Gentle Inner Light, is also published in the book, on pages 250–254.
Read A Body Illuminated by a Gentle Inner Light
Karmen Simonič Mervic: Poetically, with Gentleness and Longing
Karmen Simonič Mervic particularly emphasises the poetic sensibility of Lilijana Homovec’s writing and the questions of gender and social expectations raised by the novel.
“Lilijana Homovec portrays the human soul poetically, with gentleness and longing.”
Another important dimension of the novel is the question of childlessness and the individual’s right to privacy. In this context, Karmen Simonič Mervic draws attention to the seemingly innocent question, “Why don’t you have children?”, which can conceal a great deal of violence inherent in societal expectations.
The novel therefore also explores the extent to which society assumes the right to interfere with women’s bodies, decisions, and life stories.
Read more about the novel and Karmen Simonič Mervic’s response on Hirondelle
Radio AGORA: Generatorji zgodb (Story Generators) – Lilijana Homovec
In September 2024, the novel was the subject of an almost hour-long episode of Generatorji zgodb (Story Generators) on Radio AGORA 105.5. The programme was produced and hosted by Gabriela Babnik Ouattara. The recording runs for 59 minutes and 37 seconds.
The conversation takes the author’s transition from poetry to prose as its starting point and focuses on the relationship between an older woman and a younger man, love in later life, the body, sexuality, and illness.
Of particular importance is Lila as a protagonist who, following her divorce, does not remain trapped in a state of loss:
“She lives alone in a small apartment. Her husband left years ago, and we learn that she has built a world of her own and has come to terms with the divorce.”
The programme was broadcast on 10 September 2024 and published in the CBA archive on 12 September 2024.
Listen to Generatorji zgodb – Lilijana Homovec: Someone Always Leaves First
The Novel Among Readers and in Libraries
Someone Always Leaves First continued its journey through numerous presentations in libraries.
In December 2024, the novel was presented at the Lavrič Library in Ajdovščina, where it was described as “a gentle, emotional book”, with particular emphasis placed on the friendship between four women as an important element holding the narrative together.
Book presentation at the Lavrič Library in Ajdovščina
In April 2025, as part of the Primorci beremo reading project, the book was also presented at the Idrija Municipal Library and Reading Room.
In June 2025, it was presented at the Cankar Library in Vrhnika. During the presentation, particular emphasis was placed on Lila’s active approach to her own life:
“Lila is not merely a reflective person; in a way, she actively shapes her own history, her own existence, in order to create a path towards the future.”
Presentation of the novel at the Cankar Library in Vrhnika
Love as a Risk
Someone Always Leaves First is a novel about love, but not about love as the promise of a happy ending.
It is concerned with the moment when someone who has already built a safe and independent world must decide whether to allow another person into it once again.
Lila is a mature woman, an entrepreneur, a friend, and an individual with desires of her own. The novel challenges the notion that, as women grow older, their identity becomes confined to remembering, caring for others, or withdrawing from the world. Her body still desires. Her life continues to change.
And therein lies the heart of the novel: intimacy is possible only where the possibility of loss also exists. Someone always leaves first – but that does not mean we must stop finding our way back to one another.
