Hamam Balkania: A Novel and Other Stories

Two eras alternate, in chapters set in Cyrillic and in Latin script. In the sixteenth century, Bajica Sokolović, once a young Serbian monk, becomes Mehmed Pasha Sokolović, grand vizier to Suleiman the Magnificent, beside his friend the great architect Mimar Sinan; his drama is that of a man between Serbia and Turkey, Christianity and Islam, duty and private life. In the present, an unnamed narrator, a writer who shares the author's name, travels and talks with real figures such as Orhan Pamuk, Allen Ginsberg and Alberto Manguel, reflecting on literature, identity and the split that can run through one person. Istanbul and Belgrade meet in the book as much as East and West.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Length

302 pages in the original

Genres

Historical (assigned by AI)

Set in

Türkiye, Serbia, 16th century and present

First published

2008 by Arhipelag

Author's age

54 when first published

ISBN

9788686933195 (original)

9788676661923 (Geopoetika, Serbia)

9781908236142 (Istros Books, United Kingdom)

9781613430460 (Blooming Twig Books, United States)

9788661454707 (Geopoetika, Serbia)