Poland (Borderland), Bulgaria (Paradox)
This reportage from a dark world repeatedly links together seemingly unrelated events in prose that skillfully interweave authenticity and fiction, exposing and illuminating the »spiraling form of time«.
It is only twenty minutes by foot from the spot on the Lateinerbridge where the two successors to the Hansberger throne were assassinated at the beginning of the twentieth century, to the Vrbanjabridge, where two students were murdered at the end of 1992. With a sober impartiality, Dzevad Karahasan dispels the darkness that shrouds both the terrain and people who have crossed it.
Karahasan follows the traces left by the twentieth century in Bosnia and his hometown of Sarajevo. »Anatomy of Sadness« is about the son of an Italian partisan and a Yugoslavian communist who relates his life in exile. In »Gabriel's Principle«, inquiries lead the narrator to Theresienstadt, where he discovers that Gavrilo Princip, the assassin from Sarajevo, was imprisoned. »Letters from the year 1993«, tells of a student confronting his instructors with letters from a man who lost his life in Sarajevo.
Dževad Karahasan, born in Duvno/Yugoslavia in 1953, was an author, playwright and essayist. The Siege of Sarajevo is the subject of Dnevnik selidbe (1993), translated into ten languages, of the essay collection entitled Knjiga vrtova (2004) as well as of his novels Šahrijarov prsten (1997) and Sara i Serafina (2000). His works also include the novel Noćno vijeće (2006), Izvjestaji iz tamnog vilajeta (2007), a collection of stories, and Die Schatten der Städte (2010), a collection of essays. Karahasan has received numerous awards, including the Goethe Prize 2020. Dževad Karahasan died on May 19, 2023, in Graz, Austria.
Dževad Karahasan, born in Duvno/Yugoslavia in 1953, was an author, playwright and essayist. The Siege of Sarajevo is the subject of Dnevnik...
Peter Hurd, classical philologist and mythologist, comes to Sarajevo for a reading – just a few days before the war begins. When his translator and admirer Rajko takes him to the bus station...
Italy (Keller Editore)
»White with fear and sleeplessness we set out to see what was left of Marijin Dvor.« Once more they have been spared: a piece of shrapnel missed the author and his wife and hit the books instead:...
Italy (ADV)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: USA & Canada (Kodansha America), Spanish world rights (Circulo de Lectores / Galaxia Gutenberg), France (Calmann-Lévy), Netherlands (Van Gennep), Czech Republic (Mlada Fronta), Slovenia (Wieser)
Sarajevo, September 1914. In a newspaper editorial office, at the national bank and in other official locations, letters arrive with considerable delay, often years later. Yet it is not the war...
Italy (Keller Editore)
In Isfahan, capital of the Seljuq Empire, a highly respected man dies unexpectedly. The son of the deceased demands an investigation into the circumstances of his father’s death. Court...
Chinese simplex rights (Shanghai Translation Publishing House), Bulgaria (Paradox), Slovenia (Beletrina), Turkey (Iletisim), Greece (Hestia), Part 1: Macedonia (Templum)
English world rights (Anubih), Bulgaria (Paradox), Slovenia (Cankarjeva Založba), Turkey (Apollon)
A young couple is supposed to be smuggled out of the besieged city of Sarajevo with forged baptism documents. The plan fails. The participating rescuers are tormented by guilt. Serafina,...
Arabic world rights (Alaan)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Galaxia Gutenberg), France (Laffont), Italy (Il Saggiatore), Sweden (Bosnisk-Hercegovinska Riksförbundet i Sverige), Slovenia (Cankarjeva Založba), Turkey (Ketebe)