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Uspavanka za Vuka Ničijeg
Smještena u neimenovanom gradu neimenovane zemlje tokom ranih devedestih, radnja se odvija u Domu za djecu bez roditeljskog staranja, čiji se štićenici bore da, uprkos hladnoći i sivilu institucija, svoj život učine boljim, a budućnost svijetlom - ili barem dostojanstvenom.
Najveća borba čeka upravo Vuka, koji će se usuditi da uzvrati udarac i preživi onda kada ga institucije pretvore u žrtvu, a zatim mu okrenu leđa.
Objavljen u martu 2012. godine, ovo je drugi roman prve žene romanopisca iz Crne Gore, autorke nagrađenog psihološkog trilera “Dječak iz vode”.
“Uspavanka za Vuka Ničijeg” je 2013. godine pretočena u istoimeni pozorišni komad u koprodukciji “Budva Grad teatra” i “Narodnog pozorišta u Beogradu”.
Najveća borba čeka upravo Vuka, koji će se usuditi da uzvrati udarac i preživi onda kada ga institucije pretvore u žrtvu, a zatim mu okrenu leđa.
Objavljen u martu 2012. godine, ovo je drugi roman prve žene romanopisca iz Crne Gore, autorke nagrađenog psihološkog trilera “Dječak iz vode”.
“Uspavanka za Vuka Ničijeg” je 2013. godine pretočena u istoimeni pozorišni komad u koprodukciji “Budva Grad teatra” i “Narodnog pozorišta u Beogradu”.
239 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2012
271 people want to read
About the author
Ksenija Popović
5 books39 followersKsenija Popović (Ksenia Popovich) is a Montenegrin novelist, playwright, and screenwriter.
She has written three novels to date:
A Boy from the Water (Dječak iz vode, 2004), a contemporary thriller set in Montenegro, where it held the #1 spot on best-seller lists for ten months and was the overall best-selling book of the year. It won the literary prize Isidorinim stazama in Serbia, recognizing the best work of fiction by a woman in Serbia and Montenegro. The novel was adapted into the motion picture Look at Me (Gledaj me) in 2008. A fifth edition is set to be released in March of 2025, and an English translation is underway.
A Lullaby for No One’s Vuk (Uspavanka za Vuka Ničijeg, 2012) has been reprinted five times and adapted into a play co-produced by Budva Theatre City (Budva Grad Teatar) and National Theatre Belgrade (Narodno pozorište). The play premiered in 2013 and was on the repertoire for seven years. The English translation was briefly released in 2014 to positive reviews and is about to be re-released.
Fathers Before Sons (Očevi prije sinova, 2025), a powerful family saga set across two timelines that explores themes of guilt, family loyalty, and redemption.
Born in 1977 in Podgorica, Montenegro, Popovich studied in the United States and Italy, earning degrees in English and Spanish Language and Literature from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. She worked as a diplomat before transitioning to the arts full-time.
Her work has earned critical acclaim for its emotional intensity, richly layered characters, psychological insight, and complex plotting.
She has written three novels to date:
A Boy from the Water (Dječak iz vode, 2004), a contemporary thriller set in Montenegro, where it held the #1 spot on best-seller lists for ten months and was the overall best-selling book of the year. It won the literary prize Isidorinim stazama in Serbia, recognizing the best work of fiction by a woman in Serbia and Montenegro. The novel was adapted into the motion picture Look at Me (Gledaj me) in 2008. A fifth edition is set to be released in March of 2025, and an English translation is underway.
A Lullaby for No One’s Vuk (Uspavanka za Vuka Ničijeg, 2012) has been reprinted five times and adapted into a play co-produced by Budva Theatre City (Budva Grad Teatar) and National Theatre Belgrade (Narodno pozorište). The play premiered in 2013 and was on the repertoire for seven years. The English translation was briefly released in 2014 to positive reviews and is about to be re-released.
Fathers Before Sons (Očevi prije sinova, 2025), a powerful family saga set across two timelines that explores themes of guilt, family loyalty, and redemption.
Born in 1977 in Podgorica, Montenegro, Popovich studied in the United States and Italy, earning degrees in English and Spanish Language and Literature from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. She worked as a diplomat before transitioning to the arts full-time.
Her work has earned critical acclaim for its emotional intensity, richly layered characters, psychological insight, and complex plotting.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 15, 2012
Dark yet beautifully painful and at rare times beautifully joyous. Popovich makes an art form of wrenching your heart. Her characters are children in an orphanage who are essentially broken by parents who abandon them and don't love them, and a society with institutions that neglect them. They often rise up with amazing compassion, empathy, love and honor, only to shrink again in shame and cowardice.
This is one of those books that keeps poking at my Soul. I suspect that I have missed something in this book, that perhaps I read it too simply. I read it as story, yet I think there is an undercurrent or perhaps a harmony woven in to the novel of pitting or reflecting the protagonist's music training against her real life--how she desperately wants one thing and yet must settle for something less and in the end does not seem to work out.
Popovich is not only an excellent author, she is an astounding translator as well. I never got the feeling that this book was written in anything but English.
I feel that I should, in several months, re-read this book and pay greater attention to the subtle details. There is something haunting me about this book.
This is one of those books that keeps poking at my Soul. I suspect that I have missed something in this book, that perhaps I read it too simply. I read it as story, yet I think there is an undercurrent or perhaps a harmony woven in to the novel of pitting or reflecting the protagonist's music training against her real life--how she desperately wants one thing and yet must settle for something less and in the end does not seem to work out.
Popovich is not only an excellent author, she is an astounding translator as well. I never got the feeling that this book was written in anything but English.
I feel that I should, in several months, re-read this book and pay greater attention to the subtle details. There is something haunting me about this book.
December 16, 2017
Montenegro. 4.5 stars
I love the title! A story of 4 children who never get to be children. I was reading and would come to a certain part that would remind me it is a translation-but over all you can't tell (I believe it is self-translated which in itself is amazing). We never know where exactly the story takes place, there are certainly enough "American" things thrown in, but the author is from Montenegro.
It's a beautifully written story about love, abandonment and friendship. I could tell where the story was turning and it's so hard because you're cheering for happy endings for the characters. Overall a wonderful story.
I love the title! A story of 4 children who never get to be children. I was reading and would come to a certain part that would remind me it is a translation-but over all you can't tell (I believe it is self-translated which in itself is amazing). We never know where exactly the story takes place, there are certainly enough "American" things thrown in, but the author is from Montenegro.
It's a beautifully written story about love, abandonment and friendship. I could tell where the story was turning and it's so hard because you're cheering for happy endings for the characters. Overall a wonderful story.
December 28, 2023
Kakva knjiga!!!!
December 20, 2018
This was the only book from a Montenegrin author I could track down for my global reading challenge so it was a bonus to find it was a genuinely worthwhile read. The dry tone of the narrator Klara avoids the content becoming gratuitously sensational even when things take a gothic turn. There was a good sense of the psychological impact of growing up in an institution.
February 24, 2023
Montenegro.
I could not put this sad, thoughtful book down! Glad I stumbled upon it.
I could not put this sad, thoughtful book down! Glad I stumbled upon it.
February 1, 2016
Deeply moving, rough, but beautiful. An evergreen story that took my breath away. Love it and recommend it!
November 27, 2017
Conflict through Life
Decisions made in the past that change who a person is. Guilt lived with even as you try to disguise it.
Decisions made in the past that change who a person is. Guilt lived with even as you try to disguise it.
February 1, 2025
Jebote..
May 31, 2017
[#68 Montenegro] As often in literary fiction, this book felt like several stories into one. At first we have this group of kids slowly getting into living with each other. Then we have this heart-wrecking plot turn and we're off to a whole new kind of story.
Overall I liked this book, I liked these characters and my favorite part was them interacting with each other in the first part. Klara's psychological journey was interesting and realistic.
My only complaint is that I wish the recurring toxic masculinity and crap like ''to be a real man'' and ''he had balls'' were more challenged. I get that kids who grew up in such an environment could think like that but maybe it could have been cool for them to grow out of it.
Overall I liked this book, I liked these characters and my favorite part was them interacting with each other in the first part. Klara's psychological journey was interesting and realistic.
My only complaint is that I wish the recurring toxic masculinity and crap like ''to be a real man'' and ''he had balls'' were more challenged. I get that kids who grew up in such an environment could think like that but maybe it could have been cool for them to grow out of it.
February 16, 2013
I consider Xenia Popovich one of the best Balkans contemporary authors.
"A Lullaby for No Man's Wolf" has definitely fulfilled all of my expectations.
It's a beautifully written story about persons in an orphanage. [I won't use term "kids", since you can follow their lives from young age to nowadays.]
This is not just a story which can be applicable in a cild abusing category, and in "unhappy childhood" books. It's also a great lesson from love, hope, growing up, being independent, being strong, being successful, and in the end, lesson that tells us that being happy [or unhappy] is our choice.
To me, personally, this book is specially precious, because I had the opportunity to meet author Popovich, and to discuss issues from the book with her. I found it quite interesting how we can agree, or disagree with the authors wiev of the story. Even though she wrote it, I could felt my own reflection of reality I live in, which could be totally different.
I highly recommend "A Lullaby for No Man's Wolf" by Xenia Popovich.
"A Lullaby for No Man's Wolf" has definitely fulfilled all of my expectations.
It's a beautifully written story about persons in an orphanage. [I won't use term "kids", since you can follow their lives from young age to nowadays.]
This is not just a story which can be applicable in a cild abusing category, and in "unhappy childhood" books. It's also a great lesson from love, hope, growing up, being independent, being strong, being successful, and in the end, lesson that tells us that being happy [or unhappy] is our choice.
To me, personally, this book is specially precious, because I had the opportunity to meet author Popovich, and to discuss issues from the book with her. I found it quite interesting how we can agree, or disagree with the authors wiev of the story. Even though she wrote it, I could felt my own reflection of reality I live in, which could be totally different.
I highly recommend "A Lullaby for No Man's Wolf" by Xenia Popovich.
October 7, 2013
This book had quite good reviews so I kept forcing myself to read it but I did not enjoy it at all.
The general plot seems to be too common and when I was in the first 20% I almost gave up.
Only the big event happening there which changes everything seemed to me worth reading and still its impact did not last long enough.
In general I felt it quite dull and I was hoping for something more.
The general plot seems to be too common and when I was in the first 20% I almost gave up.
Only the big event happening there which changes everything seemed to me worth reading and still its impact did not last long enough.
In general I felt it quite dull and I was hoping for something more.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews