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Istros Books

At first, The Coming reads as a traditional detective novel, but suddenly changes form with the advent of snow in midsummer. When the town library burns down under mysterious circumstances, the detective's long-lost son begins to get involved in the investigations from afar. He takes the reader on excursions into history and recounts the life of Fra Dolcino, a medieval heretic who announced the return of the Messiah and also illuminates the life and work of Sabbatai Zevi, a Renaissance cabalist, who maintained that he himself was the Messiah. We learn that Sabbatai Zevi died in Ulcinj and left behind a manuscript, The Book of Return, which remains hidden. The unsolved mysteries of both past and present, as well as environmental anomalies, serve to create the sense of an impending apocalypse, giving way in the final chapter to a post-apocalyptic reality.

The Coming

Literature & Fiction

Nikolaidis, Andrej

Literary

Our Man in Iraq

Perišic, Robert

Humor & Satire

A Handful of Sand is a love story and an ode to lost opportunity. Now far from his homeland, the novel's protagonist looks back on his life, from his childhood, university days and first working experience to more intimate emotional events, making critical observations on human relationships and human existence. Interchanging with the chapters written in the narrator s voice are those narrated by a woman. As her story progresses, we realise that she is the love of his life: something that she hopes he will realise before it is too late.

A Handful of Sand

Košcec, Marinko

Contemporary

It is the end of the 1980s, and Europe is about to change forever; in a corner of Romania, two men await their fate as their reality literally begins to fall apart. Unafraid to speak the truth, Spahić takes us on a journey through the revolution, changing our way of seeing this chapter of history while simultaneously challenging our own sense of identity. As much about the fall of Communism as it is about the continuing disparity between West and East, Hansen's Children simply cannot fail to move you.

Hansen's Children

Spahic, Ognjen

<div>The Son follows one night in the life of a hero with no name, a writer whose life is falling apart. That afternoon, his wife left him, while for many years he has been in conflict with his father, who blames him for his mother's death. Incapable of finding inner calm, he leaves into the warm, Mediterranean night, in the city of Ulcinj, itself a multilayered mixture of European dimensions, African influences, and the communist past. The hero of The Son is a man who can't adapt to new times and rules. On his journey into the night, he meets an assortment of characters: a piano student from Vienna who has abandoned his musical career and converted to Islam, a radical Christian preacher, and a group of refugees from Kosovo. In the style of Mihail Bulgakov, the characters meet in the old city of Ulcinj, at the Square of the Slaves--a location where the pirates who lived in the city until the 19th century would bring and sell captured slaves, including Miguel de Cervantes, according to legend.</div>

The Son (Best Balkan Books)

Hamam Balkania

Bajac, Vladislav

What Does Europe Want?: The Union and Its Discontents

Despite the fact that the European Union faces the biggest crisis since its foundation, on July 1st, 2013, a new state joined the club. For the foreseeable future, Croatia will probably be the last to join; at the same time creating a barrier between the once connected states of the Balkans. Paraphrasing Freud's famous question - 'What does a woman want?' - one of the greatest European philosophers of our day, Slavoj iek, joins forces with the young Croatian philosopher, Srecko Horvat, to examine the burning question 'What does Europe want?'. Instead of a peace-project, the European Union is increasingly turning into a warzone: whether it be the expulsion of immigrants or riots in Paris and London, or European interventions to bring "more democracy" to Libya or Syria. Instead of leaving Europe to the enemies, iek and Horvat reflect on the fight for a different Idea of Europe; one that embraces all its peoples equally.

What Does Europe Want?: The Union and its Discontents

Politics & Social Sciences

Žižek, Slavoj

Horvat, Srećko

Philosophy

The new Bulgarian ambassador to London is determined to satisfy the whims of his bosses at all costs. Putting himself at the mercy of a shady PR-agency, he is promised direct access to the very highest social circles. Meanwhile, on the lower levels of the embassy, things are not as they should be. With criminal gangs operating in the kitchens, police on the trail of missing ducks from Richmond Park and a sexy Princess Diana impersonator employed as the cleaner, how is an ambassador supposed to do his job? Combining the themes of corruption, confusion, and outright incompetence, Popov masterly brings together the multiple plot lines in a sumptuous carnival of frenzy and futile vanity, allowing the illusions and delusions of the post-communist society to be reflected in their glorious absurdity!

Mission London

Humor & Entertainment

Popov, Alek

Humor

After the world's most isolated country emerged from Stalinist dictatorship and opened to capitalism, many people fell prey to fraudsters who invited them to invest in so-called "pyramid schemes." At the start of 1997, these pyramids crumbled one after another, causing widespread demonstrations and protests. The conflict became increasingly violent, leading to the collapse of the state and of the country's institutions. Prisons were opened, crowds stormed arms depots, and the country was abandoned to anarchy and gang rule. Lubonja has chosen to tell this incredible story through a narrative technique that operates on two levels: a third-person narrator, who describes the large-scale events that made international headlines, and the narrative of Fatos Qorri, the author's alter ego, who describes his own dramatic experiences in a personal diary. The book begins with the synopsis of a novel entitled The Sugar Boat that Fatos Qorri intends to write about the spread of a small pyramid scheme luring people to invest supposedly in a sugar business. However, as the major pyramids collapse, real events overtake anything he has imagined, and Fatos Qorri finds himself in the midst of a real-life tragedy.

False Apocalypse: From Stalinism to Capitalism

Lubonja, Fatos

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