Archive
Reviews
Readings of books from the region and beyond.
Try a theme — e.g. memory, exile, language. Search by idea, not just by title.
Esej o noći: Darkness as a Return to the Self
Marko Pogačar's Esej o noći is a genre-defying text — part travelogue, memoir, criticism, and poetry — built on the idea that night, not day, is the universe's primordial state. The review reads it as timely resistance to a culture of constant visibility, praising its dense, metaphor-rich prose leavened by well-placed humor. It emerges as a demanding but rewarding work that rewards a reader's full attention.
- Poetry
- Essay
Cimetna pisma, dijamantna stvorenja: A Love Story in Post-Apocalyptic Times
"Cimetna pisma, dijamantna stvorenja" is Faruk Šehić's ambitious, technically accomplished novel that uses a fragmented, non-linear structure to render a fractured reality through memory and association. The review admires its craft and its personification of war as a predatory character, while reading this as a sign the author cannot free himself from the burden of the past. It faults commonplace observations that undercut the book's philosophical ambition and wishes he would move beyond war narratives.
- Science fiction
- Poetry
- Post-Yugoslav literature
U haosu radost: Poetic Defiance
Kalija Dimitrova's poetry collection "U haosu radost" is read as a vibrant act of poetic defiance against the commercialism of contemporary life. Despite the title's promise of joy, the review finds the verses steeped in melancholy and introspection, carrying a naturally integrated feminism that questions traditional female roles and unequal relationships. It highlights the sharp, lucid social critique delivered through subtle, sarcastic humor rather than pathos.
- Poetry
Knjiga za Maju: Only Love Makes Sense
Marko Tomaš's novel "Knjiga za Maju" deliberately fragments its narrative, turning discontinuity and "jumps" into both device and metaphor for the nomadic nature of lived experience. Though Maja never appears as a character, she serves as the book's only constant, the axis around which meaning gathers. The review reads the work as fully lyrical and literarily inspired, arriving at the message that only love gives things meaning.
- Contemporary fiction
- Poetry
- Post-Yugoslav literature