Belladonna

From The Author Of The Highly Acclaimed Trieste, A Fierce Novel About History, Memory, And Illness. Andreas Ban, A Psychologist Who Does Not Psychologize Anymore And A Writer Who No Longer Writes, Lives Alone In A Coastal Town In Croatia. He Sifts Through The Remnants Of His Life--his Research, Books, Photographs--remembering Old Lovers And Friends, The Events Of Wwii, And The Breakup Of Yugoslavia. Ban's Memories Of Belgrade, Amsterdam, And Toronto Alternate With Meditations On The Mental Faculties Of Rats, A Depressed Arctic Fox, And The Agelessness Of Lobsters. He Tries To Push The Past Away, To Land On A Little Island Of Time In Which Tomorrow Does Not Exist, In Which Yesterday Is Buried. Drndic Leafs Through The Horrors Of History With A Cold Unflinching Wit. The Past Is Riddled With Holes, She Writes. Souvenirs Can't Help Here.-- Daša Drndić ; Translated From The Croatian By Celia Hawkesworth. Includes Bibliographical References. Winner of 2018 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation From the author of the highly acclaimed Trieste, a fierce novel about history, memory, and illness Andreas Ban, a psychologist who no longer psychologizes, a writer who no longer writes, lives alone in a coastal town in Croatia. His body is failing him. He sifts through the remnants of his life—his research, books, medical records, photographs—remembering old lovers and friends, the tragedies of WWII, the breakup of Yugoslavia. Ban's memories of Belgrade (which he thought he had left behind) and of Amsterdam (a different world and life) alternate with meditations on hole-ridden time (ebbing away through its perforations), on his measly pension, on growing old and fragile, on the intelligence of rats and the agelessness of lobsters, on deadly nightshade. He tries to push the past away, "to land on a little island of time in which tomorrow does not exist, in which yesterday is buried." Drndic ́ leafs through the horrors of history with a cold unflinching wit. "The past is riddled with holes," she writes. "Souvenirs can't help here." And they don't. "From the author of the highly acclaimed Trieste, a fierce novel about history, memory, and illness. Andreas Ban, a psychologist who does not psychologize anymore and a writer who no longer writes, lives alone in a coastal town in Croatia. He sifts through the remnants of his life--his research, books, photographs--remembering old lovers and friends, the events of WWII, and the breakup of Yugoslavia. Ban's memories of Belgrade, Amsterdam, and Toronto alternate with meditations on the mental faculties of rats, a depressed arctic fox, and the agelessness of lobsters. He tries to push the past away, to "land on a little island of time in which tomorrow does not exist, in which yesterday is buried." Drndic leafs through the horrors of history with a cold unflinching wit. "The past is riddled with holes," she writes. "Souvenirs can't help here."-- Provided by publisher