One of the most electrifying prose writers of our time. Dasa Drndic has blessed us with a narrator unafraid to merge global traumas with personal ones--we have before us a novel that answers the demands of history with equal parts tenacity and generosity.-- "*The Hudson Review*"
Wry and kindly, funny, angry, informed and intent on the truth, no voice is quite as blisteringly beautiful as that of Drndic. Ban is the witness, the seeker of truth. Drndic, a tenacious collector of personal histories and the names of victims lost in the Holocaust, wrote about many things; for all the darkness, her concerns are life and justice.-- "Financial Times"
The final novel by the late Croatian author is a poignant testament to her relentlessly probing spirit.-- "Financial Times"
An elegant search for lost time and a fitting valediction by a superb writer.-- "Kirkus (starred review)" (1/31/2019 12:00:00 AM)
This is a novel of ideas but also of exquisite poetry, as when Drndic writes of a figure out of Ban's past: 'He died alone, and he was afraid of solitude.' An elegant search for lost time and a fitting valediction by a superb writer.-- "Kirkus (starred review)" (2/3/2019 12:00:00 AM)
The formidable Dasa Drndic has created something like a modern-day Homeric narrative of wars that are anything but glorious. In Celia Hawkesworth, she has a translator of genius who shares her vision. It is difficult to suggest a contemporary English-language novel with which to compare it, or one that might even approach its eloquence and daring.--Eileen Battersby "Los Angeles Review of Books"
Perhaps the most ambitious novel of the twenty-first century so far.--Merve Emre "New York Review of Books"
The 20th century is revealed as a parade of horrors in this harrowing novel from Drndic (1946-2018), one of Croatia's most acclaimed contemporary authors.... Riveting.-- "Publishers Weekly" (2/4/2019 12:00:00 AM)
Drndic cultivates a visionary art of memory. She rescues the names, and the lives, of the lost. Her writing glows with an incendiary bleakness worthy of Beckett.--Boyd Tonkin "The Arts Desk"
There is great wisdom, along with dark history, in these pages, for those ready to take on the challenge.--Claire Messud "The Guardian" (12/11/2018 12:00:00 AM)
Reading Dasa Drndic is not for the fainthearted. Anger radiates from Drndic's pages, and perhaps the book's greatest strength is the way in which it gives a voice to those people who are unable to tell their own stories.--Shaun Walker "The Guardian"
We have lost one of the most electrifying prose writers of our time. It will be difficult to forget a sensibility so expansive, so capable of forging ahead while keeping the past constantly at hand.--William Harrison "The Hudson Review" (1/1/2019 12:00:00 AM)
Drndic has in her own way composed an astonishment that extracts light from darkness.-- "The Jewish Daily Forward"
After surviving a suicide attempt, Andreas Ban goes on to dissect and expose the hidden evils and secrets of our times.-- "The Millions" (1/15/2019 12:00:00 AM)
Drndic's formidable intelligence and Homeric intention cannot help but thrill and exalt.--Dustin Illingworth "The Paris Review Daily"
Drndic interweaves fiction, reality, history, and memory to terrific effect, producing unforgettable meditations on love and loss, the insanity of war and the legacy of human cruelty.--Lucy Popescu "The White Review"
Dasa Drndic, who died last year, was interested in many things--chess, suicide, the intelligence of rats--but chief among them was Nazism and the horrors of WWII. Like Bolaño's 2666, EEG demands we stare directly into the face of darkness.--Anderson Tepper "Vanity Fair" (2/14/2019 12:00:00 AM)