Belladonna [Paperback]

Andreas Ban, apsychologist who no longer psychologizes, a writer who no longer writes,lives alone in a coastal town inCroatia. His body is failing him. He sifts through the remnants of hislifehis research,books, medical records, photographsremembering old lovers and friends,thetragedies of WWII, the breakup of Yugoslavia. Bans memoriesof Belgrade (which he thought he had left behind) and of Amsterdam (adifferent world and life) alternate with meditationson hole-ridden time (ebbing away through its perforations), on hismeasly pension, on growing old and fragile, on the intelligence of ratsand theagelessness of lobsters, on deadly nightshade. He tries to push the pastaway, to land ona little island of time in which tomorrow does not exist, in whichyesterday is buried.Drndic? leafs through the horrors of history with a cold unflinchingwit. The past is riddled with holes, she writes. Souvenirs canthelp here. And they don't.We might call the novel experimental because of some of the techniques the writer employs. But the story...feels ancient. Undeniable, raw, and mythical. A novel in the documentary style of the German writer W. G. Sebald.Ferocious...an unforgettable blend of fact and fiction, history and the present. Drndic's writing is superb and deals with themes of history, illness, academia and all without flinching. A modern masterpiece.Although this is fiction, it is also deeply researched historical documentary. A masterpiece.A very fine novel, wise and brave. Drndic's fiction is very powerful statement fiction, and yet somehow the quality, the humanity, the playfulness actually counter the polemical intent. This is an extraordinary book.An elegant novel of ideas concerning decidedly inelegant topics, empathetic but unforgiving.An epic, heart-rending saga from the Croatian novelist about?a forgotten corner of the Nazi Holocaust....A brilliant artistic and moral achievement worth reading.This novel is a powerful warning. A fascinating booklƒ"