Have you ever wanted to own an atlas that would map out the relations between dreams and waking, between reality and imagination, between the past and the future? Award winning writer Goran Petrović offers you precisely that in his authentic postmodernist style. A cast of characters, living in a house with the sky as its roof, spend their days connecting the threads of this life with the myriad threads of the other worlds in their search for life's meaning and happiness. They offer us maps which show the paths through birth and death, love and romance, the thoroughfare between joy and despair. By combining their tale with a collection of ancient and future documents dealing with amulets, map-making, legends and mythology, the author guides the reader through a fantastic labyrinth toward the rather astounding outcome of self-awareness. This is an atlas that will make you dream and, even more, it will show you where your dreams may ultimately lead. Some of the best qualities of Serbian postmodernist prose in Pavić's manner can be found in this novel. An Atlas Traced by the Sky is, paradoxically, a book which stylistically reminds us of many other books and authors (The Arabian Nights, The Decameron, Borges, Pavić, Ende...), but which actually, in its rarity, in its baroque elegance and in the feast of imagination it contains, truly does not resemble a single one of those books. Goran Petrovic has written a highly imaginative work. A whirlwind of spiritual sparks ignited by novelistic artistry, which seemingly defies common-sense logic, comes from the almost pagan customs hidden in the story.
Author
One of the most significant and most widely read contemporary Serbian writers. He studied Yugoslav and Serbian literature at the Faculty of Philology of Belgrade University. At the moment, he works as a librarian at the Žiča city library, not too far away from the Žiča Monastery. Awards: the Borislav Pekić Fund Scholarship; the "Prosveta Award"; the "Meša Selimović Award"; the "Charter of Rača", the "Golden Bestseller", "Vital Award"; the "National Library of Serbia"Award; the "Most widely read Book Award" (NIN, 2001); the "October Award of the City of Kraljevo; the "Borislav Stanković Award". Petrović's books have been reprinted several times. His novels have already been translated into Russian, French, Italian, Polish and Spanish. Goran Petrović jedan je od najznačajnijih (i najčitanijih) srpskih pisaca mlađe generacije srpskih savremenih prozaista. Rođen je u Kraljevu 1961. godine. Studirao je jugoslovensku i srpsku književnost na Filološkom fakultetu Beogradskog uni...veziteta. Radio je dugo kao bibliotekar u ogranku gradske biblioteke u Žiči, pedesetak metara od manastira Žiča, a danas je na mestu glavnog urednika časopisa „Povelja“ gradske biblioteke u Kraljevu. Objavio je: knjigu kratke proze Saveti za lakši život (1989), roman Atlas opisan nebom (1993), zbirku pripovedaka Ostrvo i okolne priče (1996), roman Opsada crkve Svetog Spasa (1997), roman Sitničarnica „Kod srećne ruke“ (2000), zbirku pripovedaka Bližnji (2002), zbirku izabrane kratke proze Sve što znam o vremenu (2003) i dramu Skela (2004), zbirku pripovedaka „Razlike“ (2006) i kino-novelu "Ispod tavanice koja se ljuspa" (2010). Knjige su mu štampane u preko četrdeset izdanja. Petrovićevi romani su objavljivani u prevodu na ruski, francuski, italijanski, španski jezik, poljski i bugarski. Prema romanu Opsada crkve Svetog Spasa, a u dramatizaciji i režiji Kokana Mladenovića, u Narodnom pozorištu u Somboru postavljena je istoimena predstava. Goran Petrović je dobitnik književne stipendije Fonda Borislava Pekića, „Prosvetine“ nagrade, nagrade „Meša Selimović“, „Račanske povelje“, „Zlatnog bestselera“, „Vitalove“ nagrade, nagrade Narodne biblioteka Srbije za najčitaniju knjigu, NIN-ove nagrade za 2001. godinu, Oktobarske nagrade grada Kraljeva i nagrade „Borisav Stanković“.
