Književnost

Knjiga Vučja jazbina autorice Elodie Harper fascinantan je povijesni roman smješten u antički Pompeji, koji istražuje sudbine žena zarobljenih u zloglasnoj lupinari. Savršena za ljubitelje povijesne fikcije i snažnih ženskih priča, ovaj roman donosi emotivnu i napetu priču o preživljavanju, slobodi i nadi u nemilosrdnom svijetu drevnog Rima. Vučja jazbina – Dirljiva priča o ženama drevnih Pompeja Amara je nekoć bila slobodna kći grčkog liječnika, no nakon očeve smrti život joj se pretvorio u noćnu moru. Kao robinja i prostitutka u zloglasnom bordelu Vučja jazbina u Pompejima, svakodnevno se bori s okrutnošću svog vlasnika. Unatoč svemu, Amara ostaje inteligentna i snalažljiva, pronalazeći utjehu i snagu u zajedništvu s ostalim ženama iz javne kuće. Zajedno dijele smijeh, nade i snove o slobodi. Ali u Pompejima, gradu punom prilika, sloboda ima visoku cijenu. Koliko će Amara morati platiti da bi pobjegla iz svog kaveza? Vučja jazbina prvi je dio trilogije Elodie Harper, nagrađivane spisateljice i novinarke s Oxfordskom diplomom. Ovo je snažna priča o preživljavanju, prijateljstvu i hrabrosti žena u antičkom svijetu, ispunjena emocijama koje će vas nadahnuti. O autorici: Elodie Harper je nagrađivana spisateljica i novinarka čiji rad obuhvaća povijesnu fikciju i istraživanja života u drevnom svijetu. Diplomirala je englesku književnost na Sveučilištu Oxford, gdje je proučavala latinsko pjesništvo u izvorniku i prijevodu. Njena strast prema antičkom svijetu nadahnula je stvaranje trilogije koja započinje romanom Vučja jazbina. Harper vješto spaja povijesne činjenice i dirljive ljudske priče, istražujući teme hrabrosti, preživljavanja i snage ženskog zajedništva. Njen rad privlači čitatelje diljem svijeta svojom dubinom i emocionalnom snagom. Elodie Harper trenutno živi u Ujedinjenom Kraljevstvu, gdje nastavlja pisati i istraživati povijesne teme.

Sadržaj: Moja ljubav prema Bosni, moja vezanost, moja ovisnost o Bosni nije locirana, sužena, fokusirana samo na Sarajevo. Nije nikako. S ljubavlju sam mogo živjeti u Tešnju i u Goraždu. Presretan sam bio kad sam neke dionice svog života provodio u tim gradovima. Mogo bih nabrajati mnogo gradova: Tuzla, Bože dragi, pa Travnik… Nije mi dakle, prihvatljiv nikakav indolentni odnos prema tome šta znači voljeti Bosnu i šta ko podrazumijeva pod Bosnom. Kad se kaže, ono što citiraju rahmetli predsjednika Aliju Izetbegovića, “Bosna je ideja”, to je istina. Ali Bosna nije samo ideja. Ako je samo idjea, sutra je neće ni biti. Bosna je ideja i Bosna je prostor, Bosna je običaj, Bosna je navika.

Sadržaj: A powerful new novel follows the fortunes of five Bosnians, trying and not always succeeding, to find their way home. Safet, Amela, Bruno, Azer and Slobodan are all Bosnians. Of different ethnic and religious backgrounds, they’re all leading the same, sad refugee life. Because of the war, or, as one of them says, “because of the wrong name,” they have had to leave behind houses, memories, friends and all the other small things of which life is made. They want them back. Trapped in a maze of bureaucracy and lost in transition in a country where people believe laughing too loud must end in tears, they are searching for a reason to continue with their lives. “Povratak”, which means “Return”, is a new novel by the Sarajevo-based writer Snjezana Mulic, who spent most of her earlier professional career as a journalist, during which time she became well known for writing reportage. As a fiction writer, she knows to play with words to capture a moment almost photographically. It is as if the reader can see the pictures coming out of her stories. She employs that same skill in this book, in which she follows the steps of five people, all trying to return home. We meet Amela Filipovic, who left her house in the suburbs of Sarajevo and who, before she left, vacuumed everything, wiped the dust from her books, left plastic flowers in a vase in the living room, and splashed on some perfume. “With admiration, she looked over her home one more time, then locked up and left a key under the doormat (so they don’t have to break in, if they come, she thought) and while sobbing, left with two bags in her hands.” We meet a family from Foca who “slept with their eyes wide open” for seven days before leaving the town for good, and Bruno, a young carpenter from Nova Bila, whose father told him at the beginning of the war that he if he wanted to avoid being drafted into the army he should start making coffins instead of furniture. We meet Azer, who escaped from one part of Mostar to another and who now lives with his family in one room and whose wife dreams about her white curtains and the smell of lavender. “She used to warm herself during the long nights in rainy Mostar with those dreams, feeling a smell that was stronger than gunpowder… Those memories were the strongest bullet-proof jacket or helmet one could have in life.” One of the characters in the book, trying to deal with various administrative hurdles without success, pronounces what many people in Bosnia say today: “The war was better. It was easier to think about how to survive than to think about how to live.” “Over 70 per cent of households in Scandinavian countries and North America use the Internet, rich men are giving property on the moon as gifts to their lovers, people are planning vacations in space shuttles orbiting the universe, woman are filling their faces with Botox, and surgeons can now operate only with a mouse and computer, as far as a thousand kilometres from their patients,” the book says towards the end. In some parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina people have pools, go to saunas, drive fancy cars and travel to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Tunis, but our heroes are still in a time machine, somewhere in 1992. This is a book to read in one breath. Far more than most writers, Mulic has the power to enchant her readers, and make them hold their breath, so that they don’t exhale until they’ve reached the last full stop.