THE BOOK

THE BOOK Jurica Pavičić's new novel: The brilliant and painful anatomy of the Dalmatian deadlock far from the mainland and the season The main character Gorky Sain, a former police officer and now a real estate agent, arrives in the middle of winter on the island of his childhood By: Dalibor ŠimpragaPosted: October 7, 2020 9:11 am Jurica Pavičić Duje Klarić / CROPIX When the war in Bosnia began, Westerners began to reach for Ivo Andrić's novels . The idea of ​​deeply depicting a certain country, region, city through a representative literary text is without a doubt seductive, so they also dive into Andrić in order to learn, in an accelerated course, what important thing about that country that suddenly, after In the 80's, she found herself in the center of all attention again. Now, I don't know how much "Na Drini ćuprija" and "Travnička hronika" helped that emblematic foreigner, who had only vague ideas and unreliable general information. However, as, despite all encyclopedias and intelligence briefings, many questions ended in complete darkness, as the only chamber in which supposedly easily accessible knowledge about that corner of the continent is hidden, literature has become interesting. The chamber to which the proverbial bridge was supposed to be like some key. However, many stories and novels, however, carry the mentioned dimension, because taking a concrete space for the setting, like a carpet, they spread a pattern that remains as a great sociological, ethnological, geographical, political, mental ... fresco of that space. A classic example are Gogol's "Dead Souls", and in the local lengths and widths, for example, the short stories by Slavko Kolar and Ranko Marinković . This certainly applies to the opus of Jurica Pavičić . I intentionally mention opus and not "stories and novels", because Pavičić's focus on Dalmatia is as intense in his narrative as in his essayistic texts or daily comments. Typical characters In recent years, two of Pavičić's books have been published, in which this focus is even, in a sense, "everything", both the foundation and the roof and the mantle and the lightning rod. I am thinking of the novel "Red Water" and the collection of reviews "Book of the South". "Red Water" was in the finals of the tportal's award for novel of the year, and received two awards as the best prose achievement of 2017, the Fritz and Gjalski awards. This crime, along with other characters, follows a former (Split) police officer who became a real estate agent, and who is involved in a cold case, whose investigation he failed to dismiss about 30 years ago. RELATED NEWS & lt; br / & gt; & lt; br / & gt; 'AROUND THE CORNER, MIRROR' Branislav Glumac presented a new work that deals with meetings with artists and cultural figures MLADENKA KOSTONOGA Želimir Periš: A novel that kidnapped Araliča's world and injected a computer virus into it His name is Gorky Shain and he is the son of the partisan national hero Albin Shain. The novel revolves around the coastal town (which, for private use, could be visualized somewhere in the area of ​​Mimice or Pisak, so certainly in central Dalmatia), bringing along local scents, flavors, despair and lyrics, as well as a whole frieze of typical characters. In "The Book of the South" from 2018, Pavičić's articles dealing with Dalmatia, the Adriatic, the Mediterranean are collected, from the phenomenon of idyllic images of the south that intoxicate and drag rich northerners to descend to the warm seas, to the concrete Armageddon in the coastal belt as a reverse. " The Mediterranean as it once was. " Pavičić's new novel "Prometheus' Son" also enters this series of his books, which are drawn by a photo robot of the Dalmatian coast, and which is truly the main character that the actors walk on his face like ants on a sleeping giant - and they are all really tiny. , ordinary, disposable and interchangeable, particles of a Dalmatian anthill in which a story is woven. And in "Prometheus' Son" is the central figure Gorky Shain, a real estate agent, who this time, however, does not unravel the forgotten murder, but comes to the island of his childhood, to their old house, as a representative of an English fund, with the task of signing contracts and buys the remaining plots on Cape Malpaga, where once there were vineyards and a few olive trees, and now, after the terrain is enlarged and converted from agricultural to construction land, it should become an exclusive resort, a beautiful village of apartment houses with a yacht marina for those same northerners who are willing to pay dearly for the idyll of the south. The atmosphere of the place The time of the action is the Advent days of 2019, so almost the day before yesterday, everything is gray, southern, there is no summer bustle or bright sun, but only a half-empty waterfront and drops blown by passers-by that break the waves. Much is based on the atmosphere of the island town far from the mainland and the tourist season: everything is obscure, static and closed in on itself, the place, people, owners of precious particles, empty houses exude moisture and kale with the first twilight sinks into complete darkness. Gorki Šain passes through such a space, as does the one who reads the novel, and they both fail to detach themselves from the suggestive scenes of the dead island abyss. Persuading the owner and signing the contract, as expected, does not go smoothly. Some apathetically agree to sell their grandfather, others are stubborn and resist without retreat. One of the key obstacles, it is revealed, is related to the agent's father, Albin Šain, whose monument with a rifle, in memory of the National Liberation War, still stands in the center of the town. Because Shain the Elder was not only a fighter against the occupiers, but he dragged her like a shadow, and now he is being dragged by his son, an execution over a notorious abyss pit ... Gorky Shain, like a native in the colonial service, equipped with a cadastral map, contracts and an envelope full of euro banknotes, wanders the place of his youth between lucrative business and resentments that flood him like sulfur water from a geyser due to his return to the island. . The novel flows smoothly, without stumbling, from beginning to end in an exemplary arrangement. However, in any recommendation it should be mentioned as part of a trilogy, with “Red Water” and “The Book of the South”. Because it is only with them that it acquires its full dimension and context. Well, it provides the complete taste of a wider established story. IN BOOKSTORES Jonas Hassen Khemiri: Dad’s Clause The son of a Swede and a Tunisian in "Dad's Clause" writes about a Swedish accountant who wants to be a writer and stand up comedian, and whose father, an emigrant, regularly comes to Sweden and stays with his son. The book follows the clash of Mediterranean chaos and Scandinavian anxiety. (translated by Željka Černok, Fracture) Marko Pogačar: Latin American Marko Pogačar's travel manuscript dissolves the usual make-up scenes of South American tourist views into a naturalistic landscape of scenes and people that tourists rarely meet, and when that happens, they tend to avoid them. (Sandorf) Isaac Rosa: Land of Fear Carlos is a resident of a modern metropolis, the father of a family, a conscientious clerk, situated. And he lives in fear. The Land of Fear is a disturbing novel that reveals how fears are built and spread and how people are forced to defend themselves (translated by Matija Janeš, Disput). Nada Topic: Sister A conceptual collection of poetry, similar to the previous one entitled "Father". This time, Nada Topic deals thematically with her sister in everyday life. Sisters' expressions, gestures, are a template for a portrait. The author "paints" by describing seemingly ephemeral, in fact intimate details. (samizdat) Jokha al-Harthi: Celestial Bodies A multi-generational story that stretches from the late 19th century to the early years of the new millennium, the first novel by an Omani author translated into English and a novel that received much attention in the West. It is the first Arabic novel to be won by Man Booker International. (translated by Mirna Čubranić, Hena com) Lina Wolff: Polyglot lovers Winner of the Swedish August Award and the Svenska Dagbladet Award, translated into 18 languages. A fun novel about lovers and geniuses and those who want to be. Written with a dose of charming black humor. (translated by Željka Černok, Ljevak)