Ogenj

The novel Fire (Ogenj) draws on archival documents and testimonies about the life story of Štefka Cobelj, a partisan, later representative of the Yugoslav government to the world, curator and museum director. The novel artistically transforms the concrete story of one of Slovenia’s most controversial personalities into a metaphor for the 20th century and the social processes of the time. It is difficult to find a comparable in Slovenian literature to the literary character of this tragic defiant and rebellious woman. With its innovative structure and shifting narrative perspective, the novel also questions a fundamental dilemma of literature, namely the ability of fiction to reconstruct a historical truth. This is a novel about the rise and fall of communist Yugoslavia, about the internal paradoxes, contradictions and tragic failure of one of the greatest social and political experiments in 20th century Europe. Fire is a fresco of time, a fresco of the city of Ptuj (which can be any Centra European city), a fresco of collective erasure, a fresco of a revolution that in the end devours its own children. It is only possible on the horizon of the utopia of abstract ideas and desires, but in the real world it necessarily turns into fire and ashes.

https://fokuspokus.si/revolucija-je-pozrla-svojo-ptujsko-hcerko-stefko-cobelj-odlomek-iz-romana-10382986

https://vecer.com/kultura/o-romanu-ogenj-ce-je-revolucija-kdaj-pozrla-katerega-svojih-otrok-je-stefka-cobelj-tipicen-dokaz-za-to-10382802

https://www.dobreknjige.si/knjige/ogenj-roman-po-motivih-iz-zivljenja-stefke-cobelj/

https://www.slovenec.org/2025/05/04/namig-za-branje-ales-steger-ogenj/

https://www.rtvslo.si/kultura/beremo/ales-steger-ogenj/744242

https://ptujinfo.com/novica/kultura/steger-na-ptuju-predstavil-novi-roman-navdihnila-ga-je-ena-najbolj-kontroverznih-ptujskih-osebnosti/282006?page=0%2C0%2C%2C%2C%2C87

https://www.slovenskenovice.si/nedeljske-novice/ales-steger-cas-meri-v-knjigah-ne-v-letih/