Zivkovic-1
2019 Longlist

The Image Interpreter

Translated from the Serbian by Randall A. Major
artwork-image

ABOUT
THE BOOK

In a carriage of the Paris metro, nine people cross paths one ordinary Friday morning: a retired office worker who comes there purely to read; a tourist revisiting the memories of sixty years ago; a funeral mourner who has discovered the beauty of cemeteries; an author in search of her characters; a young man with a reality problem; an elderly woman with memory issues; a military administrator with a secret hobby; a jilted woman who has the key to the perfect match; and a secret agent high on adrenaline.

Each in turn encounters that ubiquitous and unavoidable gadget: the cell phone camera. Each comes to a realization that changes their life forever. But who is the tenth person in the carriage, and what do her photographs tell her about the other nine that they could not possibly know themselves?

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Zoran
Zivković

Zoran Živković was born in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia, in 1948. In 1973 he graduated from the Department of General Literature with the theory of literature, Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade; he received his master’s degree in 1979 and his doctorate in 1982 from the same school. He lives in Belgrade, Serbia, with his wife Mia, their twin sons Uroš and Andreja, their daughter-in-law Irena, and their three cats and a dog.

In 2007, Živković was made a professor in the Faculty of Philology at his alma mater, the University of Belgrade, where he now teaches Creative Writing. The author of twenty books of fiction and six books of nonfiction, Živković continues to push the boundaries of the strange and surreal. His writing belongs to the middle European fantastika tradition, and shares much in common with such masters as Mikhail Bulgakov, Franz Kafka and Stanislaw Lem.

Živković is one of the most-translated Serbian writers. At the end of 2010, sixty foreign editions of his prose had been published in twenty languages.

Zoran Živković was born in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia, in 1948. In 1973 he graduated from the Department of General Literature with the theory of literature, Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade; he received his master’s degree in 1979 and his doctorate in 1982 from the same school. He lives in Belgrade, Serbia, with his wife Mia, their twin sons Uroš and Andreja, their daughter-in-law Irena, and their three cats and a dog.

In 2007, Živković was made a professor in the Faculty of Philology at his alma mater, the University of Belgrade, where he now teaches Creative Writing. The author of twenty books of fiction and six books of nonfiction, Živković continues to push the boundaries of the strange and surreal. His writing belongs to the middle European fantastika tradition, and shares much in common with such masters as Mikhail Bulgakov, Franz Kafka and Stanislaw Lem.

Živković is one of the most-translated Serbian writers. At the end of 2010, sixty foreign editions of his prose had been published in twenty languages.

ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Randall
A. Major

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
01/01/2017
Country
Serbia
Original Language
Serbian
Publisher
Cadmus Press
Translator
Randall A. Major
Translation
Translated from the Serbian by Randall A. Major

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