Winner of the European Union Prize for Literature and of the Manuel Llano International Short Story Prize, A Brief Theory of Travel and the Desert is a collection of short stories that contemplate the full range of human experience. They take us on a journey around the world, from the arid landscapes of the Mediterranean coast to the work of the brilliant Serbian writer, Milorad Pavic. All of the characters are waiting for, searching for, or exploring the possibility of a revelation which never appears in their numbed here-and-now. However, fate or mere chance can reveal in a flash the true face of a character’s isolation.
Written in his very personal and intriguing style Cristian Crusat presents us with a compelling collection of texts that challenge the stereotypes of short stories.
Gabriela Babnik’s novel Dry Season breaks the mold of what we usually expect from a writer from a small, Central European nation. With a global perspective, Babnik takes on the themes of racism, the role of women in modern society and the loneliness of the human condition.
Dry Season is a record of an unusual love affair. Anna is a 62-year-old designer from Slovenia and Ismael is a 27-year-old from Burkino Faso who was brought up on the street, where he was often the victim of abuse. What unites them is the loneliness of their bodies, a tragic childhood and the dry hamartan season, during which neither nature nor love is able to flourish. She soon realizes that the emptiness between them is not really caused by their skin colour and age difference, but predominantly by her belonging to the Western culture in which she has lost or abandoned all the preordained roles of daughter, wife and mother. Sex does not outstrip the loneliness and repressed secrets from the past surface into a world she sees as much crueller and, at the same time, more innocent than her own. Cleverly written as an alternating narrative of both sides in the relationship, the novel is interlaced with magic realism.
Anul 1897. Un bărbat este găsit fără cunoştinţă, în câmp, lângă Bucureşti, în zona „moşiei Băneasa“. Nimeni nu ştie exact ce e cu el şi fiecare bănuieşte altceva: e un escroc internaţional care vrea să-şi piardă urma? Un criminal? Un bolnav? Încetul cu încetul, în jurul lui se adună o mulţime de oameni: un medic şi fiica lui, un poliţist, un comisionar în vârstă de 8 ani, care umblă prin toată Capitala cu scrisori şi pachete şi, nu în ultimul rând, gazetarii de la Universul.
Romanul, alert, cu un fir al acţiunii semipoliţist, cu personaje extrem de vii, dintre cele care-ţi devin prieteni, se petrece în numai treisprezece zile: de vineri 19 decembrie până la sfârşitul anului. Atmosfera lumii bucureştene din preajma anului 1900 este recreată ca-ntr-un film. Ajunge să deschizi cartea şi te afli, deja, acolo.
Zlata and Srebra are 12-year-old twins conjoined at the head. It is 1984 and they live in Skopje, which will one day be the capital of Macedonia but is currently a part of Yugoslavia. A Spare Life tells the story of their childhood, from their only friend Roze to their neighbor Bogdan, so poor that he one day must eat his pet rabbit. Treated as freaks and outcasts—even by their own family—the twins just want to be normal girls. But after an incident that almost destroys their bond as sisters, they fly to London, determined to be surgically separated. Will this be their liberation, or only more tightly ensnare them?
At once extraordinary and quotidian, A Spare Life is a chronicle of two girls who are among the first generation to come of age under democracy in Eastern Europe. Written in touching prose by an author who is also a master poet, it is a saga about families, sisterhood, immigration, and the occult influences that shape a life. Funny, poignant, dark, and sharply observed, Zlata and Srebra reveal an existence where even the simplest of actions is unlike any we’ve ever experienced.
Eng ganz Woch hues de gebraucht fir rauszefannen, wat et wir, d'Auszäit. Ech wousst et vum éischten Dag un. Ech hunn der et och gesot, mee du wollts et net héieren. Du hues dech voll kréie gelooss. Vun deene Proffen. Si waren sou anescht wéi déi, déi s de gewinnt waars. Déi hu vun der Auszäit geschwat, wei wann si wierklech dru géife gleewen. Wéi wann s du anescht kéints. Wéi wann si dech kéinten anescht maachen. Eng nei Chance, en neie Start, all deen ale Schäiss vergiess ...
Two years after the end of World War II, a director sets out to mimic real life by creating a film without a script, where the actors learn the story and their part in it as they go. The tale unfolds of a young couple on the run during the Nazi occupation, but soon the characters they play begin to take on lives of their own. As the lines between fiction and reality blur, the Secret Police become convinced that the director holds information that could compromise the nation’s security, and they decide to interrogate him about his fictional plot. Fear and desire merge in this imaginative world where coincidence is never just that, and overlapping identities and unconventional romance offer a playful notion of truth.
Winner of the 2013 European Union Prize for Literature.
Romaani „Mesilased” s?ndmustik leiab aset 17. sajandi l?pus. Leideni ?likooli bakalaureusekraadiga l?petanud Laurentius on saanud stipendiumi ?pingute j?tkamiseks Tartu ?likoolis. Ikalduse k?es kannatav Liivimaa pole just k?ige s?bralikum paik ning ?likoolis ja v?ljaspool seda hakkavad arenema s?ndmused, mis on kohati ?pris hirmu?ratavad. Meelis Friedenthali esikromaan „Kuldne aeg” p?lvis 2004. aasta romaaniv?istlusel kolmanda koha.
Yiorgos Doukarelis, an archaeologist and professor at the University of Athens, returns to an island in the Small Cyclades, Koufonisi, 20 years after the excavation that made him famous and changed his life forever. At that excavation, he discovered the prehistoric remains of a young pregnant woman murdered 5000 years ago. They gave her the name Kassiopi. During this trip, he had an affair with one of his students, Antigoni. They got married after Yiorgos’ divorce from his former wife Maria.
He returns to the island, six months after Antigoni disappeared mysteriously. The order and the routine of his daily life are destroyed. He is left with his memories and the only person close to him, his daughter Ismini. Going around the island, passing by the places he lived during the time of the excavation and meeting people from the past, he also wanders amongst his memories, exploring the secret ties that connect him with the three women of his life, moving from the present to the past. This is a second excavation for him, an excavation into the deepest places of his soul. He tries to remember and put in order all that happened during that summer which had a decisive impact on his life. In his fantasy, Doukarelis goes back to the prehistoric times of Kassiopi, recreating the story of the murdered pregnant young woman.
Knjiga o Uni Faruka Šehića mogla se zvati i Roman o prirodi, Život na revers, Noćni zapisi, AK-47 i njegovi meteori, Balkanski requiem, Prirodna knjiga, Nocturno za Jugoslaviju, Kratki pojmovnik sjete, Kratki pojmovnik svega, Epitafi za mrave i guštere… i svaki bi naslov bio podjednako točan i pogrešan, jer pokriti ovu knjigu naslovom je kao pokušati okovati brzu rijeku ledom.
Sama autorova nakana je bila napisati tihu knjigu o vodi, biljkama i životinjama… ali se prepustio putovanju, vođen instinktom kao najpouzdanijim kompasom, prema nepoznatoj zemlji.
I nastala je veličanstvena Knjiga o Uni čija "naracija" meandrira i krivuda, dubi obale i bježi iz korita, koja sa sobom nosi obilje materijala, a kojemu je zajedničko samo to što ga je poetizirani jezik Faruka Šehića, kakvim samo Pisci vladaju, učinio impresivnim i osobnim i onima koji ni Unu ni rijeku ni rat ni socijalizam ni list ni Berlin ni malj ni crvotočinu… nikada vidjeli nisu.
Knjiga o Uni je i pokušaj povezivanja i sređivanja egzistencije Mustafe Husara poderane životom, hipnotičko uranjanje u slojeve bića koji se pretapaju kao u snu za koji nikada nećemo biti sigurni da je završio. Ovo je knjiga iz koje se teško izranja i koja se poslije trajno nosi sa sobom, kao nešto najosobnije čega se ne želimo riješiti, kao ljudska slabost, kao vrtoglavica. Dovoljno je uroniti: jedan, dva, tri, četiri, pet…
J'aime trop la langue. Celle aux 18 muscles. Je la veux contorsionniste. Qu'elle parle un français animal. Qu'elle claque aux oreilles, moite et sauvage. Et que les mots flaquent du stylo. Comme un alcool de corps. Oui, l'écriture, comme un alcool de corps. Marilyn désossée... Je crois que j'ai écrit un road-movie traversant la vie d'une fille, Marilyn Turkey, qui aimerait bien être et homme et femme, puis animaux et quelque chose de végétation.
Премия для Испании.