After ‹Buick Rivera› and ‹Freelander›, the famous novelist Miljenko Jergović sends another lonely hero on a journey: During the communist era of the 1970s, Dželal Pljevljak, a victim of life, seeks solace and comfort in Islam and frequently travels in his black Wolga from Split on the Dalmatian coast to Livno in neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina to pray in a mosque. This is where he meets a Muslim family and his loneliness in a country characterised by social surveillance and betrayal begins to ease. Then the story takes an unfortunate turn. Jergović brilliantly links the fate of one man to the political-historical past of the former Yugoslavia.
Miljenko Jergović (*1966 in Sarajevo) studied Philosophy and Sociology. As a reporter in the besieged city of Sarajevo, he wrote for, amongst others, the Zagreb weekly magazine Nedeljna Dalmacija. He currently works as a political columnist for various newspapers and has received numerous awards for this work. Jergović lives and works as a freelance writer in Zagreb.
«Miljenko Jergović is a master of melancholy - may the energy of his story telling and the precise images of his fantasy continue to carry him further.» (NZZ)
«Silence is stronger than words. A novel cannot achieve more than that.» (Bayerischer Rundfunk)
Literaturhaus Zürich
Moderation: Andreas Breitenstein (NZZ)
Reading from the German text: Daniel Hajdu
Translation: Andrea Stanek
Punto Buchowski
Moderation: Jens Herlth
Translation: Andrea Stanek
Literaturhaus Basel
Moderation: Andrea Zink (University of Innsbruck)
Translation: Tatjana Simeunovic (University of Basel)
