Goce Smilevski is a writer from Macedonia who has won the European Union Prize for Literature 2010, for his last book ‘Sigmund Freud's Sister’, along with 10 other European authors. The ceremony was held in the Flagey Theatre in Brussels on 18 November 2010, where Smilevski was presented with the award by the Minister of Culture of Belgium, Mrs. Fadila Laanan.

Smilevski (born in 1975) was educated at the Charles University in Prague, at the Central European University in Budapest and at St. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, where he is now working. Even though ‘Sigmund Freud's Sister’ is only his second novel, writer Joshua Cohen, author of the novels ‘A Heaven of Others’ and ‘Witz’, has called him: “A young heir to Gunter Grass and Jose Saramago”. Cohen thought that “Smilevski might be the newest of a rare thing -- a living European novelist with a message for the future of his continent." In an interview for Southeast Europe: People and Culture, the writer, whose books are translated into English, Polish, German, Serbian, Slovenian and Croatian, talked about the award, about his first book called “Conversation with Spinoza” and about his message to the audience.

In 2010 you were awarded with the European Union Prize for Literature for your last book ‘Sigmund Freud's Sister’. Please tell us more about the book and the award:
 
The aim of the prize is to shine a spotlight on the creativity and diverse wealth of Europe’s contemporary literature and to promote the circulation of literature within Europe.  The novel has as one of its main themes the apocalyptic crisis of Europe at the beginning of the Second World War, as something that can be understood in the context of the Nietzschean concept of eternal return, narrated from a personal point of view - that of one of Freud's sisters, who died in a concentration camp.

In the book ‘Conversation with Spinoza’ there is a contemplative bond between philosophy and literature. In ‘Sigmund Freud's Sister’ the bond is between psychology and literature. What is the outcome of that bond?
 
The outcome is a narration of simple, personal stories, as for me Baruch Spinoza was not a conquering historical figure or anything similar - for me Spinoza was a fragile human being, a thinker, a philosopher whose emotions were in a struggle with his idea(l)s. A simple personal story is the focus of ‘Sigmund Freud's Sister’ too - it portrays the life of a woman, one of the many, one of the billions of women that are forgotten by history.

In your books you look through the eyes of famous people from history, such as Spinoza and Freud. By using this method did you also manage to reflect your country's folklore and tradition as well?
 
Tradition is sometimes beyond the themes, beyond the characters, the tradition is in the rhythm of the sentences I write, in the melody and the taste of the words, and yes - there you will find the tradition of my ancestors, who were shepherds. "Their" stories are written in a genuine manner by Petre M. Andreevski and a few other Macedonian authors.

Writer Joshua Cohen describes you as a living European novelist with a message for the future of his continent. What is your message?

My message is that we have to remember what we have forgotten: ethics. Profit has become everything to us in the past few decades. It is time for us to learn that honesty, dignity, probity, is what is important.
 
An extract of ‘Sigmund Freud’s Sister’ was included in the anthology of ‘Best European Fiction’ published by Dalkey Archive Press from the United States. Can these kinds of publications help authors from the Balkans?
 
The anthology ‘Best European Fiction’, edited by Aleksandar Hemon, with a preface by Zadie Smith, is a fascinating project. It brought thirty European authors together - authors that work at the same time, at this present time, but are from different generations and different countries. I was honoured to be among those authors, and this kind of publication helps not only authors from the Balkans, but includes authors from all European countries.

**The European Commission does not accept or recognise in whatever form or content a denomination other than “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”. All references, direct or indirect, to this country used in this article are those of its author