No-Signal Area

by Robert Perišić, Ellen Elias-Bursać (Translator)

U gradić N., zabačen i devastiran, dolaze dvojica likova i bude nadu – to je ulaz u Područje bez signala u kojem se, kao i u prethodnom Perišićevom romanu Naš čovjek na terenu, spaja lokalno i globalno u priču koja će vas istovremeno nasmijati, ali i protresti.

Od radnika do financijske elite, od konobarica do menadžerica, od domaćih do Amerikanaca... – protagonisti romana iz naoko udaljenih svjetova stupaju u odnose koji ih mijenjaju i gone u nepoznato, boreći se za opstanak i voleći, radeći puno toga što nisu planirali. Mnogi čitatelj i čitateljica prepoznat će se u životnosti odnosa što klize između rečenog i prešućenog, a prići će likovima koje možda zaobilaze u stvarnosti. Povezujući sadašnjost i prošlost te zbivanja na neobično širokom prostoru, od Sibira do Magreba, od Dinarida do Londona, ova priča angažira i intelektualno i emocionalno – uz neprekidno iščekivanje: što će biti dalje?

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Novels, Literature, International, Ebooks, Audiobook

318 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Robert Perišić (born. 1969) is a prominent Croatian poet, writer and journalist. He took his BA in Croatian language and literature at Philosophical Faculty in Zagreb. His criticism and essays were published in Feral Tribune and Playboy magazines. Perišić lives in Zagreb and works as a freelance writer.

Reviews

[Petra Jovanović · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uuu. Sjajan je Perišić, SJAJAN!

[MonicaVandina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tra 3 e 4 ⭐️
La strada di lettura a questo testo l'ho trovata dopo un pò di pagine. La struttura non è lineare e mancano alcuni riferimenti per chi non sia conoscitore della storia e cultura slava. Nonostante questo il libro mi è piaciuto, soprattutto lo stile, denso, a tratti ironico, quasi farsesco (soprattutto nei dialoghi), altre volte serio, esistenzialista. L'autore in un'intervista dice che con questo libro vuole parlare di working class e capitalismo. La storia è ambientata in un paese dopo la guerra (ex-Jugoslavia), dove oltre a disgregarsi il sogno socialista si disgregano anche le relazioni umane. Ma neppure il capitalismo ha una riuscita migliore. Belle le caratterizzazioni dei personaggi. Il finale con la storia immaginaria di un prodotto del lavoro 'alla vecchia maniera' che nei paesi occidentali viene riciclato come forma di spettacolo, assolutamente avulso dalla sua funzione, è un'immagine simbolica geniale. Credo che sia il primo scrittore croato che approccio. Molto interessante.
P.S.: Bottega Errante Edizioni (BEE) è una piccola e giovane casa editrice. Il libro di Perisic fa parte della collana Estensioni che pubblica autori dell'Est Europa e dei Balcani

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I wasn’t invested in the two main characters, I enjoyed this novel, particularly when it meandered into character sketches of people trying to find their way in the new post-communist world. Sobotka, Seila, Slovko, Erol – all compelling. I’m not usually into plot but it was pretty clever and rewarding, as they are building this antiquated turbine for an embargoed general and of course it all goes awry.

One note about the writing, in the final quarter of the book the author perplexingly changes the POV and it becomes alternating first-person, and you are left to struggle to figure out who is narrating. Unnecessary and confusing.

[Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Već sam pomislila da će mi ovo biti prvi slučaj da mi je ekranizacija značajno bolja od knjige, ali sam taman knjigu završila kad se emitirala treća epizoda serije, pa eto - ništa. Valja napomenuti i da se serija podosta razlikuje od knjige.

Roman je sasvim solidan, odličan sažetak hrvatske prošlosti i sadašnjosti na primjeru “oživljavanja” napuštene tvornice turbina u nekom gradiću koji je od te tvornice u prošlosti i živio. Nema kod nas happyenda. Taman kad se malo ponadaš - skužiš da je sve laž i samo još jedna u nizu afera.

No, knjiga mi je bila dosta “zbrkana”. Super isprepletene priče, no dosta je prostora izgubljeno na nepotrebne refleksije pojedinih likova, koje su skroz nebitne za radnju. Pogotovo kada pisac krene u novo poglavlje bez da barem malo natukne o kojem je liku riječ, pa ja nadobudno povežem poglavlje s nekim postojećim likom, da bih nekoliko stranica kasnije skužila da je riječ o novom liku… Šteta je počinjena, povratka mi nema.

[Marc Nash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Video review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Voe4j...

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

After a slow start this became a wonderful, gut wrenching (although often also darkly comic) portrait of post communist Eastern Europe. Having experienced life there as an ex-pat (although not in the former Yugoslavia) so much hit home, and so much made me sad as I reevaluated some of my impressions from the time. This packs a lot in - the disillusionment, the hyper capitalism, the desperate doomed romances with westerners, the stagnation, the profiteering and lack of business ethics… and yet none of it feels too much.

Some reviewers have disliked the switch to lots of points of view towards the end. Personally I didn’t mind that (although there were some that I enjoyed more than others) as for me it helped frame the novel as one that stands for a whole system or society and I found this an excellent book to understand the psychological and physical effects of the end of communism - and in this case the Balkan wars that followed.

[Begoña Alonso · Rating 1 out of 5]

No he podido con él, no me ha enganchado y a las 120 páginas, lo dejé.

[Sara Olecrab · Rating 4 out of 5]

Costa un poquet entrar-hi, però un cop arriben a N. i vas coneixent els personatges, especialment els obrers i la història de la ciutat, va fluint i enganxa. M’agrada que la història estigui al servei dels personatges i no a l’inrevés, m’agrada q tots tenen més llums q ombres i com plasma la història d’un país a través de la vida d’aquests, amb les diferències de vivències segons la classe, gènere, etc. com plasma la ferida d’una guerra sense parlar explícitament de la guerra. També, m’hauria agradat un final millor per Sobotka

[Željko Matić · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Zastao je pogledavši publiku kao da se pita jesu li dostojni svega ovoga, pa im saspe: "Ovo je velika krvava priča o strasti, o strasti rada, o strasti ulaganja i rizika, o strasti opstanka i nade, ovo je priča o ljudima iz socijalizma i kapi talizma, priča o čudnom mjestašcu između Istoka i Zapada, ovo je priča o strasti slobodnog tržišta koje prelazi granice čak i kad je to zabranjeno, i priča o strasti radnika koji obnavljaju tvornicu kao svoj dom i ne mogu prestati čak i kad je sve iluzorno, tržišno besmisleno sve je to sabrano u ovoj antiknoj turbini, 83-N, koju smo nazvali Posljednji socrealistički artefakt. Ona sabire povijest i sadašnjost, ali i budućnost, jer ovaj događaj se projicira u budućnost, budućnost umjetnosti."

[Marko Mravunac · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t understand how everyone loved this, it’s all over the place, too many characters, too many back stories/flashbacks, characterless chapters. The author tries too hard to stay vague, and while I understand the reasoning for this, it doesn’t work in my opinion. The buildup takes most of the novel and then the rest just feels a bit rushed. The book is very much context dependant and I feel like it cannot just simply be read by anyone.

[Maja Solar · Rating 5 out of 5]

uhh ovo je premoćno... priča o investitorima koji dolaze u neki (bilo koji jugoslovenski) gradić i pokreću proizvodnju u nekadašnjoj fabrici turbina, animirajući bivše, nakon rata potpuno propale, radnike, i naravno s planom zajeba (treba napraviti samo dve turbine i prodati ih nekom dalekom Pukovniku, koji smrdi na Gadafija, pa onda zbrisati i ostaviti radnike bez posla)... no sve se tu komplicira i majstorski razvija : ni ti investitori nisu samo crni, radnici pogotovo nisu beli, priča je o Jugoslaviji a da se nigde ne pominje ime Jugoslavije, priča je o ratu i postratnom užasu stvarnosti perifernog kapitalizma, priča je o zaraćivanju nekadašnjih braće i sestara, a da se nigde ne pominju Muslimani, Hrvati, Srbi, priča je o različitim dimenzijama preživljavanja u novom proizvodnom sistemu... ima mnoštvo perspektiva, pisano je iz različitih lica, narativna linija je uzbudljiva, a onda se pojavljuju prekrasni poetični delovi (recimo monolozi Slavka, poludelog bivšeg inženjera koji nakon gubitka sina, te odlaska žene i ćerke, postaje ludi čovek sa psom - inkarnacija postsocijalističkog užasa gradića N., ili pisma i vizije njegove ćerke Nedre, emotivno najnabijeniji poetični pasaža), onda epistolarna forma, onda nijansiranje svog tog mnoštva likova koji su svi priča za sebe i za koje kao da postoji posebna forma... ženski likovi su neverovatni, izgrađeni tako snažno, toliko složeno, toliko feministično... rečju : roman je na najbolji mogući (netendenciozni) način ispričao klasnu, polnu, pa čak i rasnu priču... tek mi je druga Perišićeva knjiga i već sam sigurna da je genije

[Dorotea · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, I wasn't sure how the author will manage to combine all the characters and their stories in a concise and clear story-line. Because of his introduction of many characters, the beginning third of the novel felt haphazard and I was somewhat put-off from the novel. But it does get better. I especially loved the final third of the book and the events that happened at the very end. I felt like the author found a good way to finish the story on a good, although somewhat deus ex machina way.
The entire story does require a bit of suspension of disbelief, or at least it did for me.
Perišić's language and style is unusual, very long sentences, you get a very state-of-consciousness type of a feeling reading it. There are frequent flashbacks and characters' life stories.
While I didn't enjoy this novel from its start, the end part saved it for me.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel almost guilty for having taken so much pleasure in a book containing so much sorrow. But though there's nothing merely comical in this story about a small Croatian city struggling to fully emerge from years of internecine war and political upheaval, the novel's wry humor prevails even amidst atrocity and tragedy.

The plot: toward the end of the 2010s, cousins Oleg and Nikola arrive in the backwater town of N and propose to reopen its defunct turbine factory. They have no idea how to do this, nor do they have reliable funding. Even more absurd, they plan to resume manufacture of a type of turbine that has been obsolete for years. Are they con artists, savvy capitalistic exploiters, or just plain clueless? And what is their real motive? Nonsensical as their idea is, the partners manage to get the plant up and running again--but things don't go quite as planned.

Though Oleg and Nikola are the main focus, especially in the first half of the book, the voices of the many townsfolk connected with the project are also heard, and they matter. They muse about mundane things--awkward first dates, ill-fated romances, boring jobs--but also remember horrors that tore lives apart and still resonate. The town of N, it turns out, is much more than just a convenient place for investors to make a quick buck.

Glad to leave behind the shortages and censorship of socialism under Tito, the townsfolk are also wary of a new capitalist order. Yet they also know that change is inevitable. And they will adapt to it with the same cynical survival instincts that have kept them alive through the centuries. In accepting the essential absurdity of human history, they achieve an almost cosmic perspective on human folly. It suits them well as they look toward a future that might promise much but deliver far less.

[Pablo Gonzalez Guillen · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. ¿En el rostro que hace de portada qué percibes? ¿El placentero deleitar de un cocktail de melancólico rakia postcomunista y ácida sátira? ¿O la turbada expresión de quien quiere silenciar alguna de las voces? Pues eso.

2. "Le resultaba ridículo en ese papel. Ya lo había visto demasiadas veces. Había visto a una infinidad de hombres que intentaban crear una y otra vez este tipo de magia que (una y otra vez llenos de esperanza) suponían que debía concluir en sexo. Hasta cierto punto era divertido contemplarlos en este intento de dirigir una película en la que casi siempre el director estorbaba al actor principal, ya que ambos desgraciados eran la misma persona".

3. Y otra película que firmaría Östlund: a la turbina en la habitación solo hay que ponerle un precio.

[Dejan Vukmirovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s always a challenge to read a book after you’ve seen its TV or film adaptation. Especially when the adaptation is as good as the recent six-episode series based on this novel.

The novel tells a powerful story populated by big number of “broken” characters still haunted by the events of the ex-Yugoslav civil war, which ended thirty years ago (year is not explicitly stated in the book, but roughly it is there) . Each character’s personal journey is often more intriguing than the central narrative.

At times, the narrative can be hard to follow as few chapters shift into first-person monologues by deeply distressed and disoriented characters. Those sections I found myself rereading to catch every detail, since key events in story narrative are sometimes skipped over and mentioned only within these extended monologues.

[Chris Bookley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Desolate.

[Miguel Ayuso Rejas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Con una historia tan buena es difícil hacerlo mal. Pero este libro además de divertido tiene bastante enjundia: una novela coral con mucho recoveco que habla, en parte, del fin del socialismo y cómo lo que quedaba no era necesariamente mejor. Muy interesante.

[Gaby Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The collateral damage of a drawn-out failure of communism followed by a vicious all-white race war a la Eastern Europe.

[Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't really know what to expect when I picked this up, the overarching story of a post-communist state adapting to the new world of capitalism is right up my street. But I did not expect Perisic to provide such beautiful forays into the emotional pasts of his characters. Most of the characters are not "young" and have a life time of love, hurt, hopes, pain, and regret. The translation is brilliant and it's one of those books that makes me want to learn the author's language (Croatian in this case) in order to even better appreciate some of my favourite chapters.

But it is not without its flaws! Largely this was a 5-star novel for me, but the final third of the book sees a transition into first-person narratives, changing between several character's perspectives each chapter. The issue is you are left to piece together whose narrative you are reading! It's clever in a way, you can identify the narrator by references to their past (which we learn about prior) but you can also tell by the distinctly different perspectives they have on the world and those around them - it does add to the emotional pull of their personal histories. However, this change in narrative was too disruptive for me as it really took me out of the "flow" of the novel. By the time the book returned to the third-person I breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately this left me feeling like Perisic didn't quite stick the landing and for that reason I can't quite give it 5-stars as much as I would like to.

Lots of other books give similar insight into post-communist countries from the 90s onwards, as well as the individual stories within. Perisic does it well too, but it's the human stories about relationships, love, loss, and healing that really made this a great book for me.

[Svjetlana Kosmerl Vlasic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dvojica "poduzetnika" financiraju reanimaciju tvornice u malom mjestu, koja 20 godina nije u pogonu. Samoupravljanje, posljedice rata, tajkunizam u teoriji i praksi. Velike priče malih ljudi, teške priče u prvom licu. Živi dijalozi, šaroliki likovi. Izvrsna knjiga, progutala sam je.

[Bepina Vragec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stvarno je 4.5. Odlična knjiga.

[Sam Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

A near perfect dark comedy of contemporary global capitalism seen from the periphery

[FM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Perišić’s novel No-Signal Area is the book behind the TV series The Last Socialist Artifact; it is a bleakly comic, humane portrait of post‑socialist transition that follows two urban outsiders as they try to resurrect a dead turbine factory and, with it, a depopulated town. It blends social satire, workplace drama, and quiet political reflection into a story about work, dignity, and the lingering ghosts of Yugoslav socialism in contemporary capitalism.​

Plot and setting: reviving a dead factory
The novel follows two men from Zagreb—a businessman and an engineer—who travel to a remote, economically ruined town to restart an abandoned turbine factory on behalf of a mysterious investor. The town, once a proud industrial hub under socialism, has been left with decaying infrastructure, jobless residents, and little hope, so the prospect of reopening the plant sparks both skepticism and fragile optimism.​

As the project unfolds, the protagonists confront opaque orders from their investor, local political intrigues, and the practical impossibility of resurrecting a complex industrial enterprise in a globalized, unequal market. Relationships with the townspeople deepen, exposing personal wounds and generational divides while showing how the mere promise of meaningful work begins to re‑knit a frayed community—even as it remains unclear whether the project is viable or ethical.​​

What the novel does especially well
A key strength is Perišić’s ability to capture the texture of a post‑industrial town: shuttered buildings, half‑remembered glories, and people suspended between nostalgia for socialist security and the harshness of market capitalism. Critics praise the way the novel makes economic questions—privatization, foreign investors, the “right to work”—feel intimate and concrete, embodied in specific workers, friendships, and anxieties rather than abstract debates.​

The book also excels at tone: it is wry without cruelty, mixing irony with genuine tenderness for characters who are frequently confused, compromised, or ridiculous. Reviewers often single out its ensemble cast and slow accumulation of detail, which together create a convincing picture of a community tentatively rediscovering collective purpose in the shadow of both socialism’s collapse and capitalism’s broken promises.​

Where it can feel uneven
Because the novel juggles many characters and subplots, some readers find the pacing uneven, with stretches of technical or bureaucratic detail about the factory and business arrangements that can feel dry or overlong. The ambiguity around the investor’s motives and the ultimate fate of the project, while thematically appropriate to a world of opaque deals and precarious hope, leaves a few readers wishing for a clearer resolution or sharper critique of the forces driving deindustrialization.​

There is also a trade‑off between local specificity and broader accessibility: the book’s deep embedding in Croatian and ex‑Yugoslav history is a major virtue, but some international readers report needing to “catch up” on context to fully appreciate the nuances of its political and social references.​

Style, voice, and atmosphere
Perišić writes in a realist, often deadpan style that interweaves workplace minutiae, dialogue, and internal reflections, producing a quietly ironic voice that never fully abandons empathy for even the most flawed characters. The prose (in translation) tends to be clear and unshowy, using small, concrete observations—about machinery, landscapes, or gestures—to suggest larger themes of decay, resilience, and compromised idealism.​

The atmosphere oscillates between grey melancholy and flashes of collective joy: scenes of shared work, bar talk, or small civic rituals hint at the possibility of rebuilding solidarity, even as economic realities continually threaten to undo it. This balance of skepticism and hope is one reason the story adapted so effectively into the acclaimed TV series The Last Socialist Artifact, which has been praised for conveying the novel’s mix of regional specificity and universal concerns about work and community.​​

Place in Perišić’s body of work
Within Perišić’s bibliography, No-Signal Area follows the success of Our Man in Iraq and confirms his reputation as a key chronicler of societies in transition from socialism to globalized capitalism. Where Our Man in Iraq focused on media, war, and the disorientation of early‑2000s Croatia, this later novel shifts the lens to economic structures and the fate of industrial towns, broadening his exploration of how ordinary people navigate systemic change.​

Perišić’s critics and publishers highlight that both Our Man in Iraq and No-Signal Area became bestsellers in Croatia and gained international translations, signaling that his tragicomic depictions of post‑Yugoslav life resonate beyond the region. The television adaptation further solidifies this book’s status as one of his central works, translating his concern with work, dignity, and collective life into a visual narrative that has attracted festival awards and cross‑European audiences

[Leire Arrutia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Como estoy entre un 3/4 estrellas me parece necesario matizar:

Me ha gustado este libro en cuanto a concepto y a historia, y me parece que trata cuestiones muy interesantes en lo que se refiere a la realidad de los países de la vieja yugoslavia a los que el capitalismo realizó muchas promesas vacías que se convirtieron en esperanzas y en vidas frustradas. Resultó que, no solo la guerra causó una destrucción y una pérdida de vidas humanas inimaginable, sino que después de la misma, mucha de su industria no podía sobrevivir en el mundo capitalista moderno, convirtieron a pueblos enteros en pueblos vacíos y sin vida, industrias y servicios públicos rapiñados y subastados al mejor postor, y a sus trabajadores en obreros en paro, sin trabajo y sin identidad.

Dentro de esto Perisic se centra mucho en la pérdida de identidad de todos estos obreros (en especial porque ligamos nuestra identidad al trabajo), la pérdida de sus familias a causa de la guerra, la separación y la muerte, y en como el engaño para revitalizar la fábrica ayuda a recuperar la identidad y el propósito a gente como el ingeniero Sobotka, que se hallaba perdido desde que su familia se exilió y se cerró la fábrica.

Dicho esto me ha parecido que narrativamente es demasiado caótico, demasiados puntos de vista en capítulos en su mayoría muy cortos, que van cambiando constantemente. Cuando piensas que ya están todos los jugadores en el tablero ¡aquí aparece otro! Todo esto ha causado que me costase avanzar en la historia, ya que no parecía realmente que fuésemos a ninguna parte con la construcción del dichoso artefacto, y que me marease un poco en determinadas ocasiones.

El tramo final del libro me parece quizás la mejor parte y cierra las 4 historias principales (Oleg, Nikola, Seila y los trabajadores de la fábrica en su conjunto) de una manera muy satisfactoria para el lector. Y con esto ya me he autoconvencido de darle las 4 estrellas... supongo que bien esta lo que bien acaba señores.

[Shei Miralbes · Rating 3 out of 5]

“se le pasó por la mente la primera vez que oyó hablar de los fran-cotiradores, no podía creérselo. No podía creer que existieran. Imaginaba la guerra como un combate en el frente. Que alguien disparara contra desconocidos en las calles no podía concebir-lo. Alguien, sin embargo, disparaba,
¡cerdo!, y el que le había encomendado semejante misión, pensó, había creado al hombre actual.”

“Fue hermoso, hasta tal punto que lo borraba todo... Borramos un mundo entero, Sheila, pero no creamos uno nuevo...”

“La imagen de aquel hombre del que había empezado a enamorarse había desaparecido. No era el que había imaginado: al principio imaginas al hombre, y el hombre imagina a la mujer, y estas imágenes se enamoran la una de la otra, estas imágenes hacen el amor, y pelean cuando tropiezan con las fisuras de la realidad.”

“no se trataba de una pobreza verdadera, sino de una corriente, la pobreza mediocre de aquellos que ven la tele, leen periódicos, siguen lo que hacen los famosos y dónde veranean, y se vuelven pobres por todo lo que desean. Ellos son más pobres que los verdaderos pobres; los pobres de la televisión y de las revistas del corazón son los más pobres, su pobreza está en las imágenes, en el lujo de yates y coches caros, en las marcas de ropa y los sueños de destinos turísticos, su pobreza es sustancial, sin orgullo ni rebeldía, porque tienen la esperanza, se proyectan en las imágenes, ahorran y se compran algo, algo que se parece a la imagen, se permiten un lujo y, demostrativa, merecidamente, lo disfrutan, y luego lo pagan a plazos mientras siguen pudriéndose delante de la televisión y las revistas cutres.”

“La industria no se ha quedado anticuada, pensé, sino que se traslada, y los obreros están lejos, en las brumas globales, donde no tienen el poder de poner condiciones ni tampoco los de Occidente pueden ponerlas como antaño. No ha caído la industria, sino el poder de los obreros. Sí, también es una historia de Occidente, aunque la presente como nuestra.”

[Naim Frewat · Rating 1 out of 5]

A real torture, that’s what this book is. I wish I could give it 0 stars. Reader beware. Pick up a Stephen King or a Coelho or Murakami even why not, you might get something from those. To Nell Zink, Miriam Toews, Jonathan Franzen and the Kirkus Reviews staffer who have endorsed this edition of the book: you are all mercenaries and your endorsement of this book has saved me from the curiosity of picking up one of your works.
Let me leave you, dear readers, with a lovely quote that doesn’t represent the writing style of this book, because there is no style, because there are no characters and because there isn’t a writer. I refuse to believe this is what Croatia has to offer readers. I will keep looking for some real Croatian literature. But please, enjoy this bit, which you will find on page 368 / 423 pages:
“And I am I. Why should we reincarnate into one another when we would be the same again? No one shall become you, or her, or him. You are always I and are always the same problem. […]
I am I, and you are you, because you are another body? Is it that? Seems to me that it is only a matter of the body, otherwise-your I and my I- where’s the difference in feeling?”

[Ivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roman o svima nama i o našem području sa malo ili nimalo signala.
Radnja koja je bliska svima nama sa Balkana i našim decenijskim posrtnucima i decenijskom tapkanju u mestu. Pojam globalizacije i privatizacije koju smo iskusili svi mi.
Robert je uspeo da kroz ceo roman zadrži tok radnje i da očuva pažnju citataocu sve do kraja romana.
Prvi deo romana odlično razvijen sa uvođenjem novih likova u pravom trenutku, da bi radnja ostala dovoljno zanimljiva i priča dovoljno dinamicna.Svaki od likova započet i objašnjen sasvim dovoljno da bi se stekao neki opšti pojam o njima a opet nedovoljno detaljno da bi čitalac sam složio priču i sam povezao niti.
Drugi deo romana započet na momente veoma haotično, možda da bi se malo dočarao ceo taj, nimalo, jednostavan poduhvat(ponovno oživljavanje davno zaboravljene fabrike i pravljenje turbina iz 80ih godina koje gotovo niko ne želi da kupi), kao i želja da se približi stanje Slavkovog uma i ima njegove cerke, kao i njihov pogled na svet generalno i stvari koje su se izdesavale u njihovoj razdvojenosti.

[Cristian M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absolutamente decepcionante, hasta el punto de no entender la media que precede a esta reseña (4,11 estrellas). Contiene demasiadas historias entrelazadas y poco desarrolladas, por lo que no me ha acabado de enganchar ninguna. Todas aparecen y desaparecen en un caos que dista mucho de cumplir con cualquier suerte de recurso literario. No he llegado a conectar con ningún personaje, pues acabo la obra sin llegar a conocer bien a ninguno de ellos, quizás producto de todo lo anterior. Asimismo, a partir de poco más de la mitad de la narración, contemplo que todo quiere cerrarse de forma precipitada. De hecho, quizás ese es el único punto fuerte de la historia que nos presenta Perisić: no alargar la agonía.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow I absolutely loved this one. Irreverent, beautiful, scathing, and gloriously absurd - it’s an epic composed of the small moments that make human life meaningful, in the best and worst ways. I don’t usually love novels that weave together so many perspectives, but it’s deftly done, and you’re quickly pulled along rooting for this motley cast that’s battered by a globalised capitalist economy and the vestiges of communism, realpolitik, each other, and still processing the effects of civil war - as well as all the neuroses and hallucinations of modern life.
A nearly perfect book, and darkly funny to boot.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. This is a big, sprawling novel. It is an ambitious work that perhaps is better understood by someone who lived through the end of communism in a formerly communist state. It is very nihilistic without being depressing. There are many characters, who I was able to keep track of, but they never came to life. The story is somewhat absurdist and I think the author was trying for black humor. It is somewhat entertaining but the overall story did not completely engage me but it was interesting enough that I read to the end.