Placebo
2016 Longlist

Placebo: The Beauty and Horror of Lies

Translated from the Bosnian by Marina Cotic and Marija Vujica
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ABOUT
THE BOOK

A satirical and grotesque novel: Placebo: The Beauty and Horror of Lies is one of the most successful novels written by Sead Mahmutefendić. It is a novel about the character of the one Gojko R., whose meta-fiction and pseudo reality attract readers with its rhythm, dynamics and refined environment. Constrained with his own frustrations and feelings of solitude and rebellious slavery Gojko R. finds a refuge in fantastic and surreal stories and monologues about his invented successes and triumphs, re-shaping the vision of reality which sharpens up the picture of his life and character. The message of the novel is: ‘Isn’t the laugh, multidimensional and vociferous one of the anthropological panaceas for expensive enjoyments and of the ways of survival.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Sead
Mahmutefendić

Sead Mahmutefendić was born in Sarajevo. He graduated from the faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade in 1973. After obtaining his degree he started teaching and writing.

His entire literary work is comprised under the title Devil’s Comedy. He wrote 24 books, 13 of them novels. His chosen novels are Kelvin’s Zero and Fish and One-eyed Jack. In June 2012 an international symposium about his work took place in Sarajevo under the title ‘Modern heretic apocryphal script about ante-apocalypse’.

Sead Mahmutefendić was born in Sarajevo. He graduated from the faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade in 1973. After obtaining his degree he started teaching and writing.

His entire literary work is comprised under the title Devil’s Comedy. He wrote 24 books, 13 of them novels. His chosen novels are Kelvin’s Zero and Fish and One-eyed Jack. In June 2012 an international symposium about his work took place in Sarajevo under the title ‘Modern heretic apocryphal script about ante-apocalypse’.

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Marina
Cotic

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Marija
Vujica

NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

This is a satirical novel written by one of the most controversial Bosnian writers at the beginning of the 21st Century.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
21/11/2014
Country
Bosnia
Original Language
Bosnian
Publisher
Xlibris
Translator
Marija Vujica, Marina Cotic
Translation
Translated from the Bosnian by Marina Cotic and Marija Vujica

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