Have you ever wanted to own an atlas that would map out the relations between dreams and waking, between reality and imagination, between the past and the future? Award winning writer Goran Petrović offers you precisely that in his authentic postmodernist style. A cast of characters, living in a house with the sky as its roof, spend their days connecting the threads of this life with the myriad threads of the other worlds in their search for life’s meaning and happiness. They offer us maps which show the paths through birth and death, love and romance, the thoroughfare between joy and despair. By combining their tale with a collection of ancient and future documents dealing with amulets, map-making, legends and mythology, the author guides the reader through a fantastic labyrinth toward the rather astounding outcome of self-awareness. This is an atlas that will make you dream and, even more, it will show you where your dreams may ultimately lead. Some of the best qualities of Serbian postmodernist prose in Pavić’s manner can be found in this novel.
An Atlas Traced by the Sky is, paradoxically, a book which stylistically reminds us of many other books and authors (The Arabian Nights, The Decameron, Borges, Pavić, Ende...), but which actually, in its rarity, in its baroque elegance and in the feast of imagination it contains, truly does not resemble a single one of those books. Goran Petrovic has written a highly imaginative work. A whirlwind of spiritual sparks ignited by novelistic artistry, which seemingly defies common-sense logic, comes from the almost pagan customs hidden in the story.
Mihajlo Pantić
At the very beginning it should be noted that Goran Petrovic has written a highly imaginative work. A whirlwind of spiritual sparks ignited by a novelistic artistry, which seemingly defies common-sense logic, comes from the almost pagan customs hidden in the story.
Aleksandar Jerkov
Goran Petrović (Kraljevo, 1961) has published more than eighty editions including five books of short stories Saveti za lakši život (Advice for an Easier Life, 1989), Bližnji (Loved Ones, 2002), Ostrvo i okolne priče (The Island and Ambient Tales, 1996), Sve što znam o vremenu (Everything I Know about Time, 2003), Razlike (Differences, 2006); the novels Atlas opisan nebom (An Atlas Traced by the Sky, 1993), Opsada crkve Svetog Spasa (The Siege of the Church of St. Salvation, 1997), Sitničarnica “Kod srećne ruke” (The “Stroke of Luck” Shop of Sundries, 2000); as well as several plays, a book of essays Pretraživač (The Searcher, 2007), and the novella Ispod tavanice koja se ljuspa (Beneath the Peeling Ceiling, 2010).
Petrović’s novels and stories have been translated into French, Russian, Spanish, German, Italian, Bulgarian, Slovene, Polish, Ukrainian, Macedonian, English, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak and Greek. Twenty or more of his stories have been published in anthologies of Serbian short fiction both at home and abroad. Some of his novels and stories have been adapted with great success for the theatre, television and radio. Petrović was the recipient of the scholarship for literature from the Borislav Pekić Foundation, the “Prosveta” Award, the “Meša Selimović” Award, the “Račanska povelja” Award, “Zlatnog bestselera” (the “Golden Best-Seller”) Award, the NIN Award for the Novel of the Year, the “Vital” Award, the October Award of the City of Kraljevo, the National Library of Serbia Award for the Most Read Book of the Year, the “Borisav Stanković” Award, the “Svetozar Ćorović” Award, the “Ivo Andrić” Award, the Prix du Marais (France), the “Laza Kostić” Award, the Jugra Award (Russia) and the “Kočićeva knjiga” Award for the best play. Goran Petrović is a member of the Serbian Literary Society and of the Serbian PEN Centre.
