Viewing posts from: Lamija Neimarlija

26.12.2011.

THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL

Mirjana Novaković: Tito has Died (Laguna, Belgrade, 2011)

By: Lamija Neimarlija

The main character in Mirjana Novaković’s thriller ‘’Tito has Died’’ (Laguna, 2011) is a dissident alcoholic, a well know journalist of a newspaper Politika, during the previous regime and a marginalised reporter in today’s capitalist Serbia. The novel begins with our hero/storyteller’s unexpected conversation with a communist Nikola Babić, in which she finds out that one number of Politika from 1968, published a very unusual article, in which, the first capital letter of each paragraph reads ‘’Tito has Died’’. The text tells of a theatre play that will start on May 4 at 3.05 p.m. The death of Tito – the great event of the Yugoslavian history – is not the only mystery in this crime story. The tragic death of one of the most perspective members of the Democratic party, Saša Vrtača, is a mystery of a great importance to the Serbian authority and its nation.

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17.12.2011.

ON THE ROAD

The Russian Computer by Semezdin Mehmedinović (Fraktura, Zagreb, 2011)

By: Lamija Neimarlija

“The Russian Computer” by Semezdin Mehmedinović has a timeline from the end of August 1995 until August 1996 and it presents an unintentional diary of moving through Sarajevo – Prague – Zagreb – Phoenix – New York – Phoenix – Washington, DC. In the ‘’Introduction’’, which sets a certain frame for understanding the notes from the diary, where the author explains how this experience of leaving comes as a memory of events that he understood only later on. This story does not integrate reasoning from a (time) distance and consists of notes from periods of moving, without any interventions in the text by the author. Drafts, as starting points for newspaper texts, were made by cutting out the surplus from the manuscript that was a lot longer, because everything he wrote was in the same document (story drafts, songs, letters, magazine texts etc).

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27.11.2011.

AT THE CROSSROADS BETWEEN NATIONALISM AND CAPITALISM

Dejan Stojiljković: Constantine’s Crossroads (Laguna, 2010, second edition)

By: Lamija Neimarlija

Constantine’s Crossroads is Dejan Stojiljković bestseller which received awards such as Svetosavski pečat (2010) and Miloš Crnjanski (2009), while also shortlisted for the Nin Award for Best Novel of the Year (2010).

The novel features elements of horror, action, fantasy and history. The plot is set in Niš, occupied by the German armed forces in 1944, with raging conflicts between chetniks and  partisans. It also deals with the search for the sword of Constantine (by Adolf Hitler’s orders) that brings world domination to the person who owns it, and is hidden in the underground tunnels somewhere in Niš.

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