The Book - Softcover

Zivkovic, Zoran

Softcover

ISBN 10: 4908793115 ISBN 13: 9784908793110

Publisher: Cadmus Press, 2019

Synopsis

The Book is not quite a novel, although almost half of it takes the form of a narrative, neither is it an essay, although quite a lot of what is said in it adopts that style. It is actually closest to that rare type or "para-genre" of satirical prose embodied in the exemplary In Praise of Folly by the famous humanist from Rotterdam. Instead of the "Folly," of human manias and absurdities, here, in a similar kind of double-talk, the books themselves "speak," those monuments to our intelligence, ambitions and self-importance, and they primarily "speak" by making an analogy between man's fate and that of books--to man's detriment, of course.

About this title

About the Author:

Zoran Zivkovic was born in Belgrade, Serbia, on October 5, 1948. Until his recent retirement, he was a full professor at the Faculty of Philology, the University of Belgrade, teaching creative writing. He is one of the most translated contemporary Serbian writers: by the end of 2017 there were 93 foreign editions of his books of fiction, published in 23 countries, in 20 languages. Zivkovic has won several literary awards for his fiction, beginning with the Milos Crnjanski award in 1994 for his novel The Fourth Circle. In 2003, Zivkovic's mosaic novel The Library won a World Fantasy Award for Best Novella; in 2007 his novel The Bridge won the Isidora Sekulic award; and in 2007 he received the Stefan Mitrov Ljubisa award for lifetime achievement in literature. In 2014 and 2015 he received three awards for his contribution to the literature of fantastika: Art-Anima, Stanislav Lem and The Golden Dragon. Zoran Zivkovic has been recognized with his selection as European Grand Master for 2017 by the European Science Fiction Society at the 39th Eurocon in Dortmund, Germany.

Review:

• ...a vicious critique of contemporary publishing as well as a tribute to books as both precious objects and valuable literature--and it's narrated by a book, mostly.
  --Scott Bryan Wilson, Review of Contemporary Fiction


• You may not be aware of this, but there are in fact two intelligent life forms on Earth. One of them is humans, although at times their right to describe themselves as intelligent is cast into doubt by their own behavior. The other is books.
  --Cheryl Morgan, Emerald City


• The Book, though, is a very broad, highly sarcastic satire, with some characters but no protagonist, essentially a long allegorical disquisition with amusing exemplary episodes. Its subject is, indeed, Books: their nature, nurture, purpose and pride: the way they see themselves, and the way they see us. Of course, underneath this elaborated whimsy, a very serious point is being made, concerning the (putative) death of the human culture of reading. ... But The Book is also, implicitly, an affirmation: so long as fine novels like this are published, how can the taste for reading ever truly die?
  --Nick Gevers, Locus

About this edition

• Publisher: Cadmus Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 4908793115
• ISBN 13: 9784908793110
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192
• Illustrator: Ito Youchan