Historias imposibles

by Zoran Živković, Luisa Fernanda Garrido Ramos (Translator), Tihomir Pištelek (Translator)

Viajes en el tiempo como remedio para la desesperanza, encuentros con Dios y pactos con el diablo, seres de ultratumba y alienígenas, libros que cobran vida... Zoran Zivkovic trabaja todos estos temas clásicos de la literatura fantástica y la ciencia ficción desde un punto de vista eminentemente posmoderno, haciendo que lo maravilloso irrumpa en situaciones cotidianas del presente y del pasado, y las ilumine de forma que las historias conecten íntimamente con las experiencias e inquietudes del lector. Esta antología reúne un relato y cinco conjuntos de cuentos con un denominador común que conforman una novela corta (al estilo de Crónicas marcianas), y ofrece una amplia panorámica del universo literario del autor. Con un estilo sencillo y directo, éste es un mosaico que despierta sensaciones insólitas, que provoca y conmueve, armonizando el deleite literario con la reflexión sobre la condición humana, el arte y la literatura.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Serbian Literature, Literature, Horror, Science Fiction

383 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Zoran Živković was born in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia, in 1948. In 1973 he graduated from the Department of General Literature with the theory of literature, Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade; he received his master's degree in 1979 and his doctorate in 1982 from the same school. He lives in Belgrade, Serbia, with his wife Mia, who is French, and their twin sons Uroš and Andreja. He teaches Creative Writing at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philology. He's received plenty of awards, one of them being the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella (The Library, 2003).

Reviews

[Glenn Russell]

Impossible Stories I by Serbian author Zoran Živković includes five of his short novels: Time Gifts, Impossible Encounters, Seven Touches of Music, The Library, Steps through the Mist. To share a sampling, here are my reviews of two of the five:

IMPOSSIBLE ENCOUNTERS
Zoran Živković recounts how a number of his novels, including Impossible Encounters, share a similar internal architecture in that they consist of seemingly stand-alone stories, however, upon reaching the end, a reader discovers an underlying unity forming an organic whole.

The author acknowledges he himself didn't invent what he terms a "mosaic novel" nor did he apply this form intentionally as a narrative strategy; rather, the mosaic architectural form came to him spontaneously as the optimal way to accomplish what he was attempting to convey in his prose. Beyond a doubt, such spontaneity fits in with his description of his creative process ever since his first novel written back at age forty-five: the non-rational part of his mind dictates his stories as he sits at his computer and types out what he is being told.

In retrospect, Zoran Živković could see this mosaic novel form possessed a most appealing quality: it represents a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Bull's eye, Zoran! That's precisely the feeling I came away with upon reading the concluding paragraphs of Impossible Encounters: this short novel contains an underlying cohesion and unity that's greater than the sum of its six individual chapters.

In pursuit of the novel's underlying unity, the author urges us to take on the role of detective in hunting for clues beginning from the first chapter. I wouldn't want to give away too much but I will share two obvious threads running through each of the six chapters: 1) a book entitled Impossible Encounters appears at some point in the story, 2) the main character, always a quiet, sedate, orderly type of individual, meets a mysterious older man who injects an element of Middle-European "fantastika" which might be translated as "fantasy" if the term wasn't immediately associated with Tolkienesque fiction. Perhaps a better translation would be "fantastic" in somewhat similar spirit a Jorge Luis Borges tale is fantastic.

So as to share a modest sip, here's a direct quote from each of the chapters along with my reflections:

1. The Window
"I was not overly surprised when I finally saw my own portrait next to one of the doors. I hadn't expected it, but it didn't seem out of place. After all, if so many others had their portraits hanging there, why shouldn't I? Where else can one hope for a privileged position if not in one's own dream?" The narrator tells us he died in his sleep. But what he finds so strange about his current after death state is its lack of strangeness; quite the contrary, all of what he sees and experiences appears entirely normal, even finding his own portrait among a series of portraits hanging in a long, narrow hallway. One can only wonder if such a prim and proper fellow could have predicted in what life form he would have chosen to make his return trip.

2. The Cone
"I stopped, still in cloud from the waist down, and waited for my eyes to adjust. Above me stretched the immeasurable, bright blue firmament, and as far as I could see below me was a motionless sea, its uniformity disturbed here and there by the islands of mountain peaks similar to the one I had just reached, forming a scattered archipelago in the sky." What is it about a mountain top that brings out the philosopher in even the most lackluster bookkeeper type? Zoran Živković is the first to admit his tales touch on our ultimate questions of life and death, identity and freedom.

3. The Bookshop
"The work I'm looking for is in this bookshop," he said. His tone had lost its previous uncertainty and become self-confident. Even more than that: he said it in a voice that would brook no objection. "And it's not old at all. Quite the contrary, it's just been written."" The narrator runs a bookshop specializing in science fiction. Not only does an inquisitive visitor to his bookstore one foggy evening claim to have traveled from a distant star but speaks of a strange fifth force and insists he be given the book he needs to resolve a problem of cosmic proportion. Can you guess the title of that book? Nope! Sorry - you will have to read to find out.

4. The Train
"Mr. Pohotny, Senior Vice President of a bank prominent in the capital city, met God on a train. In a First Class compartment, of course." So begins this quizzical chapter. Turns out, God will answer Mr. Pohotny's questions. Oh, good, I thought, we will find out if this God has limited or unlimited powers. Not at all. As Vice President of a prominent bank, Mr. Pohotny has a more profound question to ask of God.

5. The Confessional
"The deep, harsh coughing that came from the other compartment of the confessional sounded almost like a distant growl." The church is empty; guess who our priest has occasion to speak with in the confessional? Again, Zoran Živković enjoys playing with ultimate questions, this time with memory, identity and the nature of good and evil.

6. The Atelier
"Holding his hat in his hand, the old man bowed again. "I cannot tell you my name, unfortunately, since you did not give me one. I am a character from one of your stories who remained nameless. But so it is with many of your characters, is it not?" Oh, my. Not only does a character want to discuss his own life with his author, he would dearly enjoy discussing a number of other lives as well. If you give it some thought, I suspect you will be able to guess which ones.



THE LIBRARY
Zoran Živković's short novel is a tour de force of imagination, a delight most especially for readers, like myself, for whom libraries hold a special place in the heart.

Zoran Živkovic is no stranger to libraries. The Serbian man of letters has spent a lifetime sifting through stacks of books in his capacity as academic, philologist, essayist, researcher, publisher, translator and connoisseur of science fiction. His experience served him well when it came time to write these highly original tales.

The Library - a series of six encounters with libraries, all told in intimate first person by an unnamed narrator. As to the ways in which these six captivating, whimsical, occasionally beguiling yarns interlink is left entirely up to you, the reader.

Here they are. In the spirit of sharing my enthusiasm for the magic of The Library, I'll offer a quick snip on five and say a bit more on the one library that most tickled my fancy:

Virtual Library - Sitting at his computer, reading through his junk email, the narrator is intrigued by one email that announced: VIRTUAL LIBRARY with the slogan "We have everything!" Rather than his usual practice of instantly deleting, he opens it up. He decides to test the veracity of such a bold claim by searching for his own three published books. To both his astonishment and consternation, he discovers this online library has posted a photo of his younger self, the years of his deaths (nine different years) and not only his three books are listed but a grand total of twenty-one, eighteen of which display a publication date in the future. Ahhhh! He shoots off a pointed email to the VIRTUAL LIBRARY and to his stupefaction receives an instant personalized response. From here, the email exchanges spin out into even more bizarre dimensions. If Jorge Luis Borges was alive today, I can imagine his wry smile reading Virtual Library.

Home Library - "Common sense is all very well and good, but you can't always rely on it. Sometimes it is far more advisable and useful to accept wonder." So reflects the narrator as he has come to accept the wonder of climbing forty-four steps up to his second-story apartment but only forty-one steps on the way down (he counted and recounted numerous times). And then when he mysteriously receives a series of large books from an unknown sender in his mailbox his capacity for wonder over common sense is tested to the limit. In one interview Zoran Živković stated "Home Library is exemplary of my idiosyncratic approach to the art of the fantastic. All the essential keys of my poetics are contained in it."

Night Library - Similar to The Encyclopedia of the Dead authored by his fellow Serbian Danilo Kiš, Zoran Živkovic's narrator is in a library at night, after hours. In the Kiš tale, the narrator reads about his father's life, a life too ordinary to be documented in history books; in Živkovic's tale, the narrator chooses to read about his own life, a life he resents documented in any book. Humor mixed with horror - echoes of Nikolai Gogol, one of the grand literary masters Zoran Živkovic most admired.

Infernal Library - For artists in the medieval world, hell is burning in flames surrounded by devils with pitchforks. For Jean-Paul Sartre, hell is other people. For the narrator in this Zoran Živkovic tale, a man who avoided reading books his entire life, hell is - I can't bring myself to write it. You fill in the blank.

Noble Library - A tale that's too much magical mystery tour for me to say anything other than I urge you to read for yourself.

Smallest Library - The unnamed narrator pays a visit to the booksellers where they always set out their wares, used books, every Saturday year round, rain or shine, under the Great Bridge. At the very end of the row, peddling his books in an old ice cream vendor’s cart, there’s a new seller - small, wrinkled, gray bearded, hoarse voice - who tells the narrator he has what he is looking for. When the narrator asks how he knows, the old bookseller simply says, “It’s not hard to tell. It shows on your face.” The narrator is taken aback since he can now see the old man is blind.

Following a further exchange, the narrator is handed a bag of books to which he asks how much money is owed. Between hacking coughs, the vendor says, “You owe me a lot. But not for the books. They are free.” When the narrator asks why, the blind one tells him, “Because that is the only way for you to get them. I don’t sell books.”

Back in his apartment, he empties out the bag of books and to his amazement there are not only the three books the old man spoke of but a fourth book, an old edition in obvious excellent condition. No writing appears on the chestnut-colored cover but when he opens the book, after a chestnut-colored flyleaf, “the words The Smallest Library were written at the top of the first page in tiny, slanted letters.” Although there is one word on the next page which he assumes is the book’s title, he is a bit perplexed to find neither copyright information nor author. No matter, when he flips through the pages he can see the book is a novel with numbered chapters.

But he hankers to know more details about this seemingly anonymous edition by an anonymous writer. The computer to the rescue. He looks up the website for The National Library that has absolutely everything about every book ever published. He plugs in the one word title. Nothing. Perhaps, he ruminates, he has the spelling wrong. He opens the book once again to check the title page. Holy thunderbolts! “What I saw on the third page simply could not have been true. A lump formed in my throat. The difference was much more than one letter. A completely different title, consisting not of one word but three, greeted me.” And then, after his hands stop trembling enough to take a gander at the pages of the novel itself, he’s in store for an even bigger jolt: it is a completely different novel with not numbered chapters but chapter titles.

At this point our writer-narrator swings into high gear in an attempt to solve the puzzle. Reading this Zoran Živković tale, I was right there with him step by step, each revelation as much a surprise for me as it was for him. The suspense mounts and we do not discover where all this mystification is leading until the very final sentence. Then, as if watching a time-lapse film of a flower coming into full bloom, miraculously, the underlying meaning of the entire sixteen-page story bursts forth.

[Karl]

This hardcover is marked copy number 201 of 500 signed copies produced., and is signed by Zoran Živković .

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Historias imposibles’ es una colección de relatos de literatura fantástica del escritor serbio Zoran Zivkovic. En realidad, la recopilación está formada por cinco antologías de cuentos publicados anteriormente, más un relato añadido como epílogo. Se trata de cuentos fantásticos escritos a modo de Jorge Luis Borges o Dino Buzzati. Hay ciencia ficción, hay fantasía, y también realismo mágico. La prosa de Zivkovic es clara y sencilla, lírica en algunos momentos, cargada de buenas ideas que dan a la reflexión. En general, me han gustado la mayoría de cuentos, aunque es mejor ir espaciándolos con otras lecturas para no saturarse.

Los regalos del tiempo. Donde a los protagonistas se les plantea la opción de viajar en el tiempo. El relato que más me ha gustado ha sido ‘El astrónomo’.

-El astrónomo
-La paleolingüista
-El relojero
-La pintora

Encuentros imposibles. Donde, como indica el título, a los protagonistas se les presentan los más peculiares personajes. Me quedo con ‘La librería’.

-La ventana
-El cono
-La librería
-El tren
-El confesionario
-El estudio

Siete contactos con la música. Donde el denominador común es la música. Quizá sean los relatos que menos me han gustado. Me quedo con ‘La sala de espera’.

-El susurro
-El fuego
-El gato
-La sala de espera
-El rompecabezas
-El violinista
-El luthier

La biblioteca. Donde los protagonistas tienen que ver con distintas clases de bibliotecas. Me ha gustado sobre todo ‘La biblioteca virtual’.

-La biblioteca virtual
-La biblioteca doméstica
-La biblioteca nocturna
-La biblioteca del infierno
-La biblioteca más pequeña
-La biblioteca distinguida

Pasos en la niebla. Donde el nexo común es el futuro, el destino. Me ha encantado ‘Un despertador en la mesilla de noche’.

-Desorden en la mente
-Un agujero en la pared
-Gansos en la niebla
-La línea de la mano
-Un despertador en la mesilla de noche

Epílogo.

-El teléfono

[Hon Lady Selene · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm very excited about this writer, he's so creative, ought he be classified Borgesian? Calvinoan? Doesn't matter, I ate his stories like they were granny's hot buns, fresh from the peć.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Jorge Luis Borges had written bedtime stories, Serbian writer Zivkovic expresses what I'd expect. The uncanniness of Borges combined with the folklorish feel of a fable, but without necessarily a clear-cut "moral," I loved getting trapped in these dreamscape-tales. And yes, Italo Calvino is probably another apt style comparison. Particularly loved Time Gifts, Impossible Encounters and The Library.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This rare collection of Zoren Zivkovic's short fiction collecting Time Gifts, impossible encounters, seven touches of music, The Library, and Steps through the mist(all probably easier to find..though the Portland Library has five copies of this book). All use a mosaic approach like Jeff Vandermeer in City of Saints and Murderers with several short pieces tied together with a meta-fiction piece, but revealing pieces of a strange cosmology instead of a surreal city like Vandermeer. These pieces touch on the rigidity of life, our concepts of good and evil, fear of death, fate, time, fiction versus reality, author and character, if this sounds stiff and intelectual, do not fear he has great tone, pace, and good if sometimes bleak sense of humor. Switches between being very funny and very menacing and manages to be bleak without being hopelessly despairing about the odd nature of existence and reality. File along side Kobo Abe and Borges(but closer to Calvino in tone and ability to entertain).

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

As befits the title, these Impossible Stories are nearly impossible to find, at least here in the U.S. But the book is worth seeking out. Živković has once again put together a series of short stories that captivate the reader with nearly every word. Taken together, the stories are tied to themes of fate and destiny, our vain human attempts to exert control over the whims of chance and fate and the encumbrances of past mistakes and tragedies. The stories are about the desire to know what we cannot know, to gather up the sum of human knowledge and draw... some sort of conclusion that will allow us to make sense of it all -- to feel in control. They are about the desire for the impossible. If these sound like frustratingly broad themes, well, they are, but each story is a specific, delicious character study, and the best of them don't let their broad thematic ties distract from the moment: the proprietor of a science fiction bookshop learns about the true nature of his inventory; a fastidious man lets a World Literature collection get the best of him and his home; and, a fortune teller confronts a mysterious client, a loaded gun, and the certainty of the fates she foretells. Try and find this and the other works of Zoran Živković. It's wonderful stuff.

[Ana Manasijević · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite author and best fiction writer

[naturaespecies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un Borges juguetón y libre de la tontería. Recomendabilísimo.

[El · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are five "story-cycles" in this one collection by Zoran Zivkovic ("Time Gifts", "Impossible Encounters", "Seven Touches of Music", "The Library" and "Steps Through the Mist"), and within each cycle 4-7 short stories of similar nature or using the same motifs. They are all interconnected in some way, often not becoming clear until the last story of each cycle. The best way of describing the stories themselves is to say that they are simply short stories with a classic feel that one does not find frequently in short story collections today - and then, to paraphrase a gentleman I knew several years ago, the stories go supernova when least expected. The best one can do is roll with it which is surprisingly easy despite the modern, urban feel of the stories. The fantasy fits naturally.

I found the book in the World Fiction section of the library, and I'm not entirely sure where it would be shelved if not there. It's not quite science fiction/fantasy, not quite horror, not quite any one specific category. It's not as distracting as it sounds; perhaps my predilection for Jonathan Carroll books have prepared me for Zivkovic's writing. I liked how each story encorporated a single idea in each "cycle", and it was fun to see how the connections were made. At times within some cycles I grew frustrated and wanted to skip to the next, but in the end I am happy I managed to wade through all of it. Zivkovic's short stories give me hope, even the stories surrounding death, suicide, the Devil. The man clearly loves books and literature, and for that reason alone the author is a good man.

[Bruno Vinhas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esta obra insere-se dentro de uma categoria do fantástico muito diferente da que estou habituado a ler. É uma compilação de contos que me deixou maravilhado em muitos casos. Existe um nota etereamente presente de um grande amor e devoção que o autor tem pela literatura, pois existem uma série de contos cujo tema são os livros. Mas na generalidade estes contos abordam questões mundanas de uma forma completamente fantástica, criativa e imaginativa.

[Çağlayan Taybaş · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tanrıyla karşılaşsanız ona ne sorardınız? Şeytanla tanışsanız tepkiniz ne olurdu? 80 yaşındaki sizle sohbet etseniz ne hissederdiniz?

[Awais Ahmed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hidden gem. A collection of absolutely delectable short stories (most of them at least). Mesmerizing tapestry of surrealism, fantasy, and philosophical introspection. Through concise yet evocative tales, Zivkovic invites readers to explore the boundaries of reality and the depths of human experience. The stories all linger with you long after the final page is turned.

[Весна · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
5-за идеју и опажање
4-вишак речи, понекад

[Sam Zavala · Rating 4 out of 5]

¿Lo imposible, posible? Este libro como dice el título va a contarte historias imposibles, mi favorito son las narraciones de encuentros imposibles

[Igor Gligorijevic · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Several books of linked stories collected here, most enjoyable, a little repetitive.

[Michael Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

a great writer who deserves awards outside the fantasy realm

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impressive.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2006/07/impossibl.shtml[return][return]PS Publishing have done the world an immense favour by releasing, between one set of covers, five of Zoran }ivkovi's story cycles, plus one more story to end with, all topped and tailed with explanatory pieces by Paul Di Filippo and Tamar Yellin. His writing draws from that magical realist tradition whose most frequently dropped names include Mikhail Bulgakov, Salman Rushdie, Jorge Luis Borges, and Isabel Allende, not forgetting his geographical neighbour Ismail Kadar

[Joerg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Durch eine Rezension des von mir hochgeschätzen und verehrten Karl-Markus Gauß hellhörig geworden, begann in freudig zu lesen. Die Freude hielt am Anfang auch noch an, erschlaffte aber von Kapitel zu Kapitel, die keine sind, da das Buch eigentlich eine Sammlung von Erzählungen ist, durch die sich die Topoi Zeitreisen und deren resultierenden Kausalitätsprobleme ziehen. Die einfache Sprache wird mit den vorhersehbaren Plot von Erzählung zu Erzählung manierlicher.
Trotzdem mal was anderes.

[León Serratos · Rating 5 out of 5]

¿Dónde había estado escondido Živković durante toda mi formación?

Me encantó cuan meta este libro es. Constantemente cambiando las reglas y empeñándose en mover todos los tapetes en los cuales me paraba.

La imaginación y los juegos a los que te somete este autor fueron una verdadera delicia. Imposible pensar en no regresar a él.

[Eloi Puig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ressenya en català:

http://www.elkraken.com/R-historias_i...

Reseña en castellano:

http://www.elkraken.com/Esp/R-histori...

[Zahi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me encantó. Extraño por momentos, pero realmente genial.