The debut novel by Metka Sušec Praček, I’m No Longer Afraid, published by Hirondelle in 2024, places a woman in her mature years at the centre of the narrative – Sara, a lawyer who, after her husband’s death, faces the question of how to go on living when the roles she has occupied in life until then begin to disintegrate. Widowhood, loneliness, ageing, love, eroticism, work and the position of older women in society are intertwined in the novel with a question that is, in fact, much broader: how can one become the centre of one’s own life anew?
🔴 The novel explores the themes of ageing and the position of older women, which are less frequently placed at the very centre of the narrative in contemporary Slovenian literature. At the presentation of the book at the Intergenerational Centre in Ankaran, it was described as “excellent reading for women at turning points in their lives.”
Reviews and Responses:
Mateja Polona Wallas: Loving Life, but Loving Oneself First
In her extensive critical essay “Loving Life, but Loving Oneself First”, Mateja Polona Wallas reads the novel primarily from the perspective of a woman who, after losing her husband, must rethink her identity, her future and her relationship with her own body and life. She also particularly highlights age discrimination, social expectations placed on older women and the notion that, as a woman grows older, she is supposed to withdraw from the visible sphere of society.
“She needs neither a man nor an employer; she herself has become the centre of her own happiness and love.”
Wallas describes the novel as “a homage to Woman with a capital W” and emphasises that Sara is not merely a lawyer, a mother, a wife or a lover, but all of these at once. Her journey thus becomes a story about self-worth and dignity and, above all, about a good relationship with oneself.
Read the critical essay “Loving Life, but Loving Oneself First”
Mimi Podkrižnik: Writing as Filigree Weaving
Mimi Podkrižnik has also written about the novel, placing the author’s style and the way Metka Sušec Praček develops her main character at the forefront.
“The author writes gently, sensitively and precisely.”
In her reading, Sara is “a full-blooded woman in her mature years”, experienced and wounded enough that she no longer has to answer to anyone. This is precisely one of the novel’s key features: its heroine does not renounce life but wishes to take it into her own hands once again.
Podkrižnik compares the author’s writing to “filigree weaving”, particularly in the descriptions of Mediterranean nature, light and the people who come into the main character’s life.
Metka Sušec Praček on Radio Koper
In January 2025, Metka Sušec Praček was a guest on the programme Dopoldan in pol on Radio Koper. In the 24-minute conversation, she presented her journey from a long legal career at the Port of Koper to creative writing, as well as the creation of her debut novel. She also spoke about Sara, a successful lawyer who faces two major turning points in her life – widowhood and the end of her professional career. During the programme, she also read her favourite excerpt from the novel.
Listen to the conversation with Metka Sušec Praček on Radio Koper
Story Generators: I’m No Longer Afraid
We also devoted an episode of Story Generators (Generatorji zgodb) to the novel. At the centre of the conversation is a question that unfolds throughout the novel: what happens to a woman’s identity when the roles through which those around her have defined her for many years come to an end or change?
Sara finds herself on the threshold of a new stage in her life, but the novel does not understand ageing as a fading away. On the contrary, it raises questions of freedom, love, corporeality and the possibility of a new beginning.
Listen to Story Generators – Metka Sušec Praček
Excerpts from the Novel
Several excerpts exploring different layers of Sara’s story were published in Jantarna lastovka, both before and after the novel’s publication.
In the title excerpt, I’m No Longer Afraid (Ni me več strah), fear and overcoming it are linked to loss and memory. In A Complicated Case (Zapleten primer), Sara emerges before us as a lawyer and a woman in the professional world, while the excerpt Where Is Home? (Kje je dom?) raises the question of belonging, roots and the places one carries within oneself. The Smell of Raspberries (Vonj po malinah) reveals a more intimate, sensual side of the novel.
Read the excerpt “I’m No Longer Afraid”
