Blue Moon
Damir Karakas author Ellen Elias-Bursac translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Selkies House Limited
Publishing:15th May '25
£15.00
This title is due to be published on 15th May, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
"A time of polarization, a time when we were called upon to inhale the air of the nation, a time when it mattered who belonged to which ethnic group. But our hero wants to belong to his own, special, rockabilly nation, founded on music, freedom, the freedom of the spirit, the freedom to decide, to choose his clothes, his hairstyle. . ."
-Boris Liješević, theatre director of 'Blue Moon', the play
Čarli left his mountain village and his past to study agronomy in Zagreb. Failing miserably his commitment to most endeavours is falling into question. Nobody, however, can surpass the time he spends on his hair and his music.
Most days Čarli whiles away the hours grooming his pompadour. Even crossing the street, he pays attention to the direction of the wind so that his quiff, his pride and joy, is not displaced. And most evenings he spends with friends in the city's underground clubs from which the sound of rockabilly music echoes through cobbled streets and into the night.
When he meets the red-haired Eli, a street-smart city girl, Čarli is thunderstruck, and an unlikely relationship begins. Eli quotes the lyrics of Leonard Cohen and has little time for rockabilly music. She is an A-student, competent. When news of impending fatherhood sparks an existential crisis, Eli is there to keep him from the precipice.
However, the ominous signs of Yugoslavia's instability become more apparent as Čarli's downward spiral intensifies. Sinister figures from past decades return to manufacture discontent and the facade of peaceful co-existence begins to crack under the weight of history until a precise moment of witness when the future of a generation and of a country comes to a thunderous halt.
"This story about the disappearance and transformation of the Serbs of Zagreb-a story that the scoundrels would never dare tell, even if Blue Moon were awarded every Croatian literary prize-has been told with unusual care, touching attention and a sense of responsibility; the responsibility of a writer for a story that must be told, no matter the price for telling it."
-Miljenko Jergović
"What may seem at first glance to be a simple, straightforward love story actually moves at many levels. The author dissects society on the eve of war and transition with a tale that at times surprises with an unexpected gut punch."
-Sven Popović, Moderna vremena
"As is so often the case with fine books, there is dancing, singing and drinking as the Titanic goes down and while funeral bells are clanging-for whom? For everyone who sees themself in this, in other words for everyone who can hear the bells toll."
-Teofil Pantić, Vreme
"Were things better then, under Tito? Did Yugoslavia have a chance? How much did we lose? And what did we gain by murdering each other and radicalising our already irrational hatred? There are no answers to these questions, so Karakaš doesn't ask them. Instead, quite rightly, his novel succeeds in recreating the time pre-catastrophe, the deafening thunderclap which, though beyond our range of hearing, had unimaginable consequences for our psyches. Do you hear it even now? Listen closely."
-Vladimir Arsenić
Reivews of Celebration:
"The translation is exemplary. . . Celebration is an astonishing read reminiscent of Boris Pasternak [and] Alexander Solzhenitsyn . . . With its spirited prose, microscopic attention to character and environment, Karakaš leads the reader into the individuals that make up the forces of history."
-Robert Allen Papinchak, Asymptote
"Ellen Elias-Bursać's graceful translation captures the atmosphere of Karakaš' writing, the hopefulness as well as the sense of threat . . . the cinematic quality that makes this such a powerful story."
-Antonia Lloyd Jones
"The book can easily be read in a single sitting, but it will burrow into your consciousness . . . As fascism and other belligerent ideologies reassert themselves across the globe, Karakas' novella is both timely and sobering . . . its appearance in English, thanks to Elias-Bursać, is unquestionably a cause for celebration."
-Los Angeles Review of Books
"Every little thing in this book moves, and it will move you . . . The moon and the stars watch along as the trees threaten to strangle Mijo. And all to the tune of birdsong."
-Ena Selimović, World Literature Today
- Winner of Mesa Selimovic Award 2021
ISBN: 9781917254267
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
112 pages