Pod okriljem svemoćne JNA, Dimitrije Donkić, opskuran čovek nepoznate prošlosti, oformljuje svoju grupu, Životinjsko carstvo, čiji članovi isprva misle da je povod njihovog okupljanja samo druženje i zabava. Uskoro otkrivaju da im je jedini zadatak da pomognu pri sprovođenju brutalne odmazde nad jednim pripadnikom grupe. Pozadina studentskih protesta iz 1968. godine, to jest razračunavanje sa učesnicima demonstracija, presudno utiče kako na događaje u banjalučkoj kasarni, tako i na dramatičan epilog u Kanadi 21. veka. David Albahari svojim novim romanom ulazi u drugačiji univerzum, ali sa istom idejom. On još uvek primećuje pojave koje nama izmiču, primoravajući nas da stvarnost posmatramo drugim očima.Životinjsko carstvo stoga predstavlja još jednu studiju o ljudskom karakteru, jezovit prikaz stanja stvari. Roman je vrlo kompaktan, skladan, likovi su više funkcije priče nego osebujne ličnosti, što sasvim odgovara piščevoj nameri – da pripovedač ostane nepoznat, nedokučiv, nepouzdan, da priča sama sebe pripoveda. Ova knjiga otkriva sve Albaharijevo majstorstvo u tome da nenametljivim postupkom kreira atmosferu jeze i teskobe.
Author
David Albahari is a Serbian writer of Jewish origin from Kosovo, residing in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Albahari writes mainly novels and short stories. He is also an established translator from English into Serbian. He is a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He graduated from the University of Belgrade. He published the first collection of short stories Porodično vreme (Family Time) in 1973. He became better known to wider audience in 1982 with a volume Opis smrti (Description of Death) for which he got Ivo Andric's award. In 1991 he became the chair of the Federation of Jewish Communes of Yugoslavia, and worked on evacuation of the Jewish population from Sarajevo. In 1994, he moved with his family to Calgary in the Canadian province of Alberta, where he still lives. He continues to write and publish in the Serbian language. In the late eighties, Albahari initiated the first formal petition to legalize marijuana in Yugoslavia. His books were translated into several languages and five of them are available in English: Words Are Something Else (1996), Tsing (1997), Bait (2001), Gotz and Meyer (2003, UK) (2005, US) and Snow Man (2005). He has been contributing to Geist magazine.
