Once again Živković demonstrates the sheer power of storytelling in this complex cycle of interlocking narratives. Like one of Escher's drawings, the narrative threads lead one through a dizzying labyrinth of recurring themes, images and characters, all of whom are linked with elegant mathematical precision: God and suicide, food and poison, monks, athletes, soldiers and soccer players all take their places in the circle-dance. Absurdity, surreality and humour abound; death is the ultimate destiny, yet always the next story offers infinite ways of escape.
Tamar Yellin, the author of The Genizah at the House of Shepher
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 is the author of the following seventeen works of fiction: The Fourth Circle (1993), Time Gifts (1997), The Writer (1998), The Book (1999), Impossible Encounters (2000), Seven Touches of Music (2001), The Library (2002), Steps through the Mist (2003), Hidden Camera (2003), Compartments (2004), Four Stories till the End (2004), Twelve Collections and the Teashop (2005), The Bridge (2006), Miss Tamara, the Reader (2006), Amarcord (2007), The Last Book (2007) and Escher's Loops (2008).
He lives in Belgrade, Serbia, with his wife Mia, their twin sons Uroš and Andreja, and their four cats.
Zoran Živković rođen je u Beogradu 1948. Diplomirao je 1973. na Odseku za opštu književnost s teorijom književnosti Filološkog fakulteta Univerziteta u Beogradu. Na istom fakultetu magistrirao je 1979. i doktorirao 1982, a od 2007. predaje kreativno pisanje.
Dobitnik je sledećih književnih nagrada: "Miloš Crnjanski" (1994), "Svetska nagrada za fantastiku" (2003), "Isidora Sekulić" (2007) i "Stefan Mitrov-Ljubiša" (2007).
