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U prvoj zbirci priča napisanoj nakon što je ušao u finale prestižnog međunarodnog Bookera, Novaković se vraća temama koje su odredile njegov opus: egzil, rat, religioznost, ali i sitni pomaci u stvarnosti koji život čine tako čudesnim i začudnim. Priče o ratu i užasu isprepliću se s fantastikom i satirom, ali i nježnim, nostalgičnim, duboko intimnim pripovijestima. Zajednička odrednica, kao i uvijek kod Novakovića, bilo bi istraživanje onoga što čini čovjeka, sa svim njegovim ljepotama, užasima, manama i veličanstvenošću.
- GenresShort Stories
232 pages, Paperback
Published September 15, 2016
3 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
Josip Novakovich
36 books64 followersJosip Novakovich (Croatian: Novaković) is a Croatian-American writer. His grandparents had immigrated from the Croatia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to Cleveland, Ohio, and, after the First World War, his grandfather returned to what had become Yugoslavia. Josip Novakovich was born (in 1956) and grew up in the Central Croatian town of Daruvar, studied medicine in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad. At the age of 20 he left Yugoslavia, continuing his education at Vassar College (B.A.), Yale University (M.Div.), and the University of Texas, Austin (M.A.).
He has published a novel (April Fool's Day), three short story collections (Yolk, Salvation and Other Disasters, Infidelities: Stories of War and Lust), two collections of narrative essays (Apricots from Chernobyl, Plum Brandy: Croatian Journey) and a textbook (Fiction Writer's Workshop).
Novakovich has taught at Nebraska Indian Community College, Bard College, Moorhead State University, Antioch University in Los Angeles, the University of Cincinnati, and is now a professor at Pennsylvania State University.
Mr. Novakovich is the recipient of the Whiting Writer's Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, two fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, an award from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. He was anthologized in Best American Poetry, Pushcart Prize, and O.Henry Prize Stories.
He taught in the Master's of Fine Arts program at Pennsylvania State University, where he lived under the iron rule of Reed Moyer's Halfmoon Township autocracy. He is currently in Montreal, Quebec teaching at Concordia University.
He has published a novel (April Fool's Day), three short story collections (Yolk, Salvation and Other Disasters, Infidelities: Stories of War and Lust), two collections of narrative essays (Apricots from Chernobyl, Plum Brandy: Croatian Journey) and a textbook (Fiction Writer's Workshop).
Novakovich has taught at Nebraska Indian Community College, Bard College, Moorhead State University, Antioch University in Los Angeles, the University of Cincinnati, and is now a professor at Pennsylvania State University.
Mr. Novakovich is the recipient of the Whiting Writer's Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, two fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, an award from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. He was anthologized in Best American Poetry, Pushcart Prize, and O.Henry Prize Stories.
He taught in the Master's of Fine Arts program at Pennsylvania State University, where he lived under the iron rule of Reed Moyer's Halfmoon Township autocracy. He is currently in Montreal, Quebec teaching at Concordia University.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 17, 2017
From the story Acorns, these two lines capture what is afoot here...
Ana gagged in anguish.
"Would you like a typewriter?" he asked.
In the first sentence, we the audience are Ana, the protagonist in that agonizing story. She bears the brunt of brutality in that piece, her curiosity and her will to know more are punished. Is this our destiny here as well? And in the second sentence, Novakovich emerges, and the only response is to write.
Or maybe this is simply a result of "write what you know" and Novakovich has known some of the worst mankind has to offer. I think a younger version of myself would embrace the bracing nature of such vicarious viciousness, however reading it now on the wrong side of 50 I find myself drawn more to the righting as opposed to the writing of atrocities.
But like the peculiar pairing in "Crossbar" (one of two outlandish takes on soccer hooliganism, yes more outlandish than the actual) maybe the righting involves bringing together assailant and victim in a very uneasy truce. Or does the concluding story in this collection, "In the Same Boat" more accurately map out the future of uneasy truces?
I will say re-reading some selections while typing this up, I sense more of Novakovich's humor, but chuckling while gagging with anguish is harder as we get older.
Ana gagged in anguish.
"Would you like a typewriter?" he asked.
In the first sentence, we the audience are Ana, the protagonist in that agonizing story. She bears the brunt of brutality in that piece, her curiosity and her will to know more are punished. Is this our destiny here as well? And in the second sentence, Novakovich emerges, and the only response is to write.
Or maybe this is simply a result of "write what you know" and Novakovich has known some of the worst mankind has to offer. I think a younger version of myself would embrace the bracing nature of such vicarious viciousness, however reading it now on the wrong side of 50 I find myself drawn more to the righting as opposed to the writing of atrocities.
But like the peculiar pairing in "Crossbar" (one of two outlandish takes on soccer hooliganism, yes more outlandish than the actual) maybe the righting involves bringing together assailant and victim in a very uneasy truce. Or does the concluding story in this collection, "In the Same Boat" more accurately map out the future of uneasy truces?
I will say re-reading some selections while typing this up, I sense more of Novakovich's humor, but chuckling while gagging with anguish is harder as we get older.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 22, 2017
Novakovich's storytelling in the collection Heritage of Smoke left me wondering, how didn't this win the Man Booker prize it was nominated for. That is to say that there wasn't a single story in the book that didn't hold me rapt. The intersection of these characters and the history of eastern Europe is an unfolding drama not held to any one point in time. Instead of stories that conclude, Novakovich manages to leave the reader with a sense of a story that has no ending, as depressing as that might be. I couldn't recommend this book more.
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March 22, 2017Okay, I really didn't give this much of a chance. But I wasn't hooked. It was dark and lacked movement.
December 16, 2021
Heritage of Smoke is a collection of short stories. Some are related to life in the former Yugoslavia, but some, like In the Same Boat, the final story in the collection are not. My favorite stories in the collection were the title story, Heritage of Smoke, and the erotic Tesla story, Remote Love.
I learned of Rebro Hospital in Zagreb.
"And he thought, what's the world come to that you need to call the same thing by different names? Bosnian, Serbian, Montegnegrin, Croatian...despite different names and accents and folklore, aren't we all the same? How can coffee have so many nationalities? It's still the same damned bitter mud." (141) [Heritage of Smoke]
"Sure, the disease could remind him of his native region, his village in Gorski Kotar." (100) [Remote Love]
I learned of Rebro Hospital in Zagreb.
"And he thought, what's the world come to that you need to call the same thing by different names? Bosnian, Serbian, Montegnegrin, Croatian...despite different names and accents and folklore, aren't we all the same? How can coffee have so many nationalities? It's still the same damned bitter mud." (141) [Heritage of Smoke]
"Sure, the disease could remind him of his native region, his village in Gorski Kotar." (100) [Remote Love]
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews