Hamam Balkania

Disclaimer: This book is for serious readers only, and was not written with the pulp fiction 6th-grade-level reader in mind. Pick up Hamam Balkania at your own risk. (And enjoy every word lovingly spilled onto the pages by award-winning author Vladislav Bajac and translator Randall A. Major.)  One of the most ambitious novels of our time. Goffredo Fofi, Internationale A whole new way to tell a story... -John Ralston Saul, President of PEN International  Zen work, historical novel, philosophical diary, superb exercise of modesty... -Fabio de Propris, Il Manifesto  A work of stunning intellectual, structural and narrative complexity, written in clear, engaging and witty prose. -Drew Adamek, Valley Advocate  A meticulously structured tale of friendship and redemption. -Marcus Agar, Wild Rooster, London  Vladislav Bajac's novel Hamam Balkania has won five awards, been printed in seven bestselling editions, and is finally coming to North America. In the tradition of great modern Serbian novelists, Bajac twists and weaves a tale between old and new, modern and rusted, East and West, water and fire. It's not hard to see why this historical novel has been translated into 15 languages and become a bestseller in its home country.  Bajac's tale dances between its two plots and threads as if it were a couple dancing with no space between them. His prose is at times convoluted, and at times poetic, but always gripping, and fiercely organized.  The author's home country of Serbia is fascinated with its Ottoman roots, and this novel is no exception. Bajac takes the lives of ancient figures and weaves them together with flashing, real, and dirty characters from Western society's recent past - his stories at times dipping their pen into the well of memoir. Bajac has rubbed elbows with Leonard Cohen, and shared words and stages with literary greats - none of that is lost on the reader here.  Two stories collide in the reader's mind, not on the pages, as if learning two different histories from two separate professors. This is at once a story of friendship, and a book of warning: do we really know that which we believe we know so well?  Hamam Balkania received the Balkanika Award for the best novel in the Balkans for 2007/2008, the Isidora Sekulic Award for the best book in 2008 and the Hit Liber Award for the bestselling book in the same year.

Literature & Fiction

Bajac, Vladislav

Literary

Blooming Twig Books (NY)

Istros Books

Dittrich-Verlag

Bekstvo od biografije - zivot u osam imena

Arhipelag

<p>To say that Hamam Balkania is a historical novel, is to reveal only one piece of a puzzle, the one which fits in the sky part of a large sea landscape. It is extremely important, that is true, but the way Vladislav Bajac performs his little literary alchemy trick by turning a grand, totalizing narrative into something personal, and thus giving it credibility, zest and liveliness, is truly amazing. The Ottoman empire and its subjects in Southeastern Europe, East and West, Sokollu Mehmed Pasha and Koca Mimar Sinan, destruction and creation, are the crucial elements of this meticulously organized story. One of the two lines of the story starts with an unprecedent human drama of young men born and raised in one faith and nation who are forcefully taken to serve in the other; the line of the plot that takes place in the contemporary world, with Orhan Pamuk, Allen Ginsberg and Juan Octavio Prenz among others, is seemingly independent but strongly connected to the historical one. In a story of a friendship, of unique soul-searching and redemption, we are offered a picture of the world that gently warns us to be careful, patient and wise when forming opinions both of the things we know well, and of those that reached us through history. Hamam Balkania received the Balkanika Award for the best novel in the Balkans for 2007/2008, the "Isidora Sekulic" Award for the best book in 2008 and the "Hit Liber" Award for the bestselling book in the same year.</p>

Geopoetika

Knjiga o bambusu

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bajac, Vladislav. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bajac, Vladislav