The narrator receives a letter written by his friend just before he committed suicide, in which the latter suggests that he should pick up his job and go to Mongolia to write a travel guide on that country. The narrator seizes the occasion assuming that Mongolia will be totally different from his own ‘crappy country’. The again, it might also be because he wishes to flee from the police who seem a little too interested in a novel he is writing ? Or does he hope to reconnect with his one and only love in such ‘an impossible place’ — or does he merely want to disappear ?
In Ulan-Bator, he meets a Dutch bishop, a former Russian officer who has become Grand Lama, an American journalist who works for a newspaper that has disappeared a long time ago, a French zombie still inhabited by his lascivious past, an Italian psychoanalyst and a movie star.
In this hilarious philosophical tale, symposia are generally held at the bar of the Genghis Khan Hotel, where vodka flows like water, in which subjects such as the ontology of Man, the connections between life and death, between God and the devil, and other metaphysical issues are debated over.
In this hilarious philosophical tale, symposia are generally held at the bar of the Genghis Khan Hotel, where vodka flows like water, in which subjects such as the ontology of Man, the connections between life and death, between God and the devil, and other metaphysical issues are debated over.
TITLE : The Mongolia Guide
AUTHOR : Svetislav Basara
COUNTRY : Serbia
AUTHOR : Svetislav Basara
COUNTRY : Serbia
NUMBER OF PAGES : 136
SOLD TO: 10/18 (France), Kunstmann (Germany), De Geus (Netherlands), minuscula (Spain) and Quodlibet (Italy)
SOLD TO: 10/18 (France), Kunstmann (Germany), De Geus (Netherlands), minuscula (Spain) and Quodlibet (Italy)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Svetislav Basara was born in western Serbia in 1953. One of the most brilliant — and most controversial — writers of his generation, his iconoclastic production includes books that are small masterpieces of the absurd. He gives a rough time both to the rules of the novel and to the order of the world, creating a farce that is both cynical and scathing. He excels as well in the pastiche, shaking up readers in romans à clef, giving a new slant to the diplomatic novel for which Ivo Andric is renowned, with emphasis on versions marked by anarchy and burlesque. He has published a number of novels, short story collections and works of non-fiction. His books have been translated into English, Greek, Italian, Hungarian, Slovak, and French. The French publisher Gaïa has published De bello civili, version Vitamine C(1996), Le pays maudit (1998), Histoires en disparition (2001), Phénomènes, Copie d’un manuscrit brûlé (2004). In 2005, Les Allusifs published Le miroir félé.
Svetislav Basara was born in western Serbia in 1953. One of the most brilliant — and most controversial — writers of his generation, his iconoclastic production includes books that are small masterpieces of the absurd. He gives a rough time both to the rules of the novel and to the order of the world, creating a farce that is both cynical and scathing. He excels as well in the pastiche, shaking up readers in romans à clef, giving a new slant to the diplomatic novel for which Ivo Andric is renowned, with emphasis on versions marked by anarchy and burlesque. He has published a number of novels, short story collections and works of non-fiction. His books have been translated into English, Greek, Italian, Hungarian, Slovak, and French. The French publisher Gaïa has published De bello civili, version Vitamine C(1996), Le pays maudit (1998), Histoires en disparition (2001), Phénomènes, Copie d’un manuscrit brûlé (2004). In 2005, Les Allusifs published Le miroir félé.