A Handful of Sand

by Marinko Koščec

A Handful of Sand is a love story and an ode to lost opportunity. Now far from his homeland, the novel's protagonist looks back on his life, from his childhood, university days and first working experience to more intimate emotional events, making critical observations on human relationships and human existence. Interchanging with the chapters written in the narrator’s voice are those narrated by a woman. As her story progresses, we realize that she is the love of his life: something that she hopes he will realize before it is too late

Genres: Fiction

255 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Marinko Koščec dokazao se kao jedan od najvažnijih hrvatskih romanopisaca današnjice. Rođen je 1967. u Zagrebu. Nakon studija engleskog i francuskog na zagrebačkom Filozofskom fakultetu, magistrirao je književnost u Parizu. Prije objavljivanja prvog romana Otok pod morem, pisao je kratke priče, eseje i leksikonske natuknice.

Spomenuti roman prvijenac izravno se bavi provokativnom i u vrijeme objavljivanja, 1999., vrlo aktualnom temom hrvatske ratne i poratne zbilje devedesetih godina. Otok pod morem podijeljen je u tri dijela u kojima se isprepliće sudbina trojice prijatelja, urbanih pacifista, koji primaju poziv za odlazak na ratište. Drugi dio romana opisuje predratno prevratničko stanje u Hrvatskoj, kao i ono ratno, ali i izvan hrvatskih okvira, jer se Koščecov pripovjedač uspijeva osloboditi služenja vojne obveze upisivanjem poslijediplomskog studija u Parizu. Slijed događaja u romanu prati i ritam ljubavnih pustolovina i peripetija koje te pustolovine izazivaju. U trećem, finalnom dijelu romana pripovjedač boravi na udaljenom otoku gdje otkriva što se dogodilo ključnim likovima. Otkriva nam i životni moto i svrhu življenja kroz autoironiziranje, osuđujući posvemašnji lopovluk, manipulacije i tranzicijsko društvo u cjelini.

Drugi Koščecov roman, Netko drugi iz 2001., je jedinstven na hrvatskoj književnoj sceni. Roman je to sa inovativnom i nesvakidašnjom kompozicijom koja se može usporediti sa šestodijelnom glazbenom suitom. Svih šest poglavlja napisano je u prvom licu, a usporedba s romanom tijeka svijesti je potpuno umjesna jer se likovi-pripovjedači izmjenjuju iz poglavlja u poglavlje, a identitet im se djelomično preklapa. Naime, stavka je na pripadnosti određenom kulturno-povijesnom miljeu (istoku ili zapadu Europe). Autor istražuje koliko nas pitanje mjesta egzistencije određuje u odnosu prema nama samima i u odnosu na druge te koliko je to ograničavajući faktor. Upravo pripovjedači, ljudi povezani koliko s Istokom toliko i sa Zapadom, ljudi golemog iskustva i zanimljivih sudbina, služe kao ilustracija stvarnosti i važnosti tih pitanja. Nit poveznica ovog kompleksnog romana ljubav je prema Bachovim suitama, i ta nit nadrasta sve proturječnosti i nestalnosti djela. Roman Netko Drugi osvajač je Nagrade Meša Selimović.

Roman Wonderland (2003.), vjerojatno najčitkiji Koščecov roman, svojevrsna je satira na akademske i opće prilike u Hrvatskoj. U središtu priče je četrdesetogodišnji profesor koji s trudnom suprugom živi kod njenih roditelja i mašta o studenticama kojima predaje. Imaginacija se vješto isprepliće s realnim situacijama karakterističnim za posttranzicijsku Hrvatsku. Ponovo se Koščec dotiče korupcije, ruralizacije, tajkunizacije, a sve na ironičan način, uz osebujnu britku duhovitost. Wonderland je ovjenčan Nagradom V.B.Z.-a za najbolji roman.

To malo pijeska na dlanu (2005.) četvrti je roman Marinka Koščeca u kojemu je u središtu ljubavna priča likovne umjetnice i korektora u izdavačkoj kući. Ljubavni odnos dvaju glavnih likova ispričan je iz dvije perspektive; izmjenično se javljaju i muški i ženski pripovjedač. Naravno da se kod Koščeca ne može raditi tek o ljubavnom romanu, romanu odnosa - roman je to i o obitelji, odrastanju, egzistenciji, postmodernističko djelo u kojem se u kratkim rezovima izmjenjuju snažna ironična oštrica te lirske i tragične dionice, uz one erotske i filozofske.

Najnoviji roman, Centimetar od sreće (2008.), u središte stavlja četiri lika: Rolu, Kixa, Mašu i Tašu, njihove krhke identitete koje autor prati od početka rata u Hrvatskoj naovamo. Kadriranje sudbine likova izneseno je kao da se ispisuju male psihološke studije. Roman zapravo problematizira apokaliptičnu, neizvjesnu, surovu stvarnost.

Osim romana, Koščec je objavio i tri knjige: Skice za portret suvremene francuske proze (2003.), Mrmor u mraku - antologija francuske kratke priče (2007.) i Michel H.- mirakul, mučenik, manipulator (2007.). U potonjoj knjizi autor analizira ukupnost Houellebecqova opusa, uklj

Reviews

[Glenn Russell]

A Handful of Sand by Marinko Koščec - an arresting, exceptionally well-written novel that moves through a wide emotional register: sweet, sad, erotic, intimate, cold, cruel, passionate, a novel reminiscent of Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being mixing personal drama with the broader sweep of history. Only with A Handful of Sand, the year is 2004 and the setting is Zagreb, capital city of Croatia, with haunting memories of the 1991-1995 bloody war following Croatia's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia.

The tale features two unnamed first-person narrators - a man and a woman, both single and in their early thirties. He's a publishing company editor and she's an artist. Marinko Koščec switches back and forth eleven times between having the man tell his story and the woman tell her story, a narrative technique capturing the pathos and intensity of the pair's respective lives leading up to and following their memorable first encounter. Oh, two throbbing hearts.

2004 Zagreb might be the tale's epicenter but Marinko Koščec stretches time and place as if they were silly putty, Keeping this fluid space/time shifting in mind, I'll segue to what could be the novel's trailer. I'll also bestow names on our two unnamed narrators - Mijo and Lana.

A MAN'S MENTAL PAIN
“All I can do is stare into the same painful thoughts in the darkness: as soon as my conscious mind switches on they're there.” So reflects Mijo on the first few pages. The more we read of Mijo's current life and past life, the more we come to appreciate the depth of Mijo's anguish.

A WOMAN'S MENTAL PAIN
A successful painter of large canvases, Lana the artist trembles with fear and shame when photographers shove their cameras in her face. As for her paintings: "But my pictures - I felt as if I was now seeing them for the first time. The gallery walls bore the marks of the mourning which I had painted out on canvases day and night, for months, unaware of what I was doing. Now it screamed from the walls, showing me strung up in a hundred copies." The agony and distress of the suffering artist, anyone? With sweet, dear Lana, we're given a searing portrait of a sensitive soul battling her way through overwhelming emotional barriers.

A SOCIETY'S MENTAL PAIN
So many people in the city of Zagreb harboring unbearable suffering. Lana lives in a basement apartment in the tallest building in the area, a prime spot for someone wishing to end it all. There's been a rash of suicides and one person's smashed body propelled itself through her window and splattered many of her paintings. Ugh! In a flash of inspiration, Lana stuck a note on her front door: To whom it may concern, the northern side is also good for suicide jumping.

PROBLEMS IN HIS FAMILY
Mijo tells us about the time his mother introduced herself to his elementary teacher as his father, giving everyone yet again another reason to think she's the neighborhood loony. Mijo is an only child. Oh, yes, one child was more than enough for Mom as when she related to her son that "she'd never wanted to have children and everything could have been different if she hadn't got pregnant; and me turning out the way I did - the cross she had to bear was God's way of punishing her." And where's Mijo's dad? Gone, gone, gone. Mijo's mom told him his father was a Gypsy but the facts proved more mundane: his father simply vanished once his wife became pregnant. Now, dear reader, imagine growing up in that happy household!

PROBLEMS IN HER FAMILY
Lana's mom was a nominal Orthodox Christian and her father a Jew from Germany burdened with all those horrific memories of the concentration camps. One traumatic experience for poor Lana at age fourteen: her father eavesdropped on her phone conversation when she told a friend on the telephone that she lost her virginity. "I heard that, he growled, dashed into the room wild-eyed and laid into me with fist and feet. Mother didn't lift a finger or say a word to stop him. When the 'lesson' was over, she took my head in her lap and stroked it until I'd cried my very last tear." Lana forever after carries a sense of guilt surrounding her sexual life. Ironically, when her mother dies, Lana becomes the caretaker for his depressed, morose father.

HIS PERCEPTION OF BEAUTY
Mijo lets us know that for as long as he can remember, he's been a magnet for weirdos. One of the many weirdos we're introduced to is Zoran, a mental patient who creates fantastic drawings of labyrinths, "scenes of teeming action, dense and compact, full of interlaced movements, collisions, rifts and transformations. They were covered from edge to edge in intricate patterns, calligraphic tendrils and arabesques which intersected and merged, plunging into one another, vanishing into depths and forming bizarre figures here and there with unbelievable, enchanting colour combinations." As we read various episodes in Mijo's life, it becomes abundantly clear he possesses a keen sensitivity and attunement to all things visual, including the visual arts.

HER PERCEPTION OF BEAUTY
Lana takes lessons from an accomplished Croatian artist. "I had to listen to his meditations on the meaning of art. He considered that art sucked the life out of people instead of giving it to them, in devoting their creative urges to art, people were transformed into something like sand, which briefly came alive and created the illusion of a surrogate life - a much better life where everything was possible and reachable; but it was all made of sand. By stirring it up and wallowing in it, we came ever closer to turning to sand ourselves."

Art and life, beauty and life, love and life - catch it when you can before the sand blows away as dust in the wind. Can this serve as the moral of Marinko Koščec's tale? I urge you to pick up a copy and explore for yourself.


Croatian novelist Marinko Koščec, born 1967

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Handful of Sand by Marinko Koščec and translated from the Croatian by Will Firth, is billed on its blurb as an ‘ode to lost opportunity’ but I think it’s more than that. I think it asks, is it ever possible for psychologically damaged people to love? Or is it that they can only ‘sample’ what others have, only to lose it like sand slipping through their fingers?

The story is told as a ‘duet for two narrators’ who are never named. To keep track of them in my notes as I read, I christened them by the font that was used. He became TNR (Times New Roman) and she became Ariel (although that’s not how the font is spelt, I know). What was just a device to keep track of the alternating perspectives became emblematic of how I felt about them: although she shares few of the qualities of her Shakespearean namesake she is ethereal, imaginative and irritated by moral ties. TNR’s blunt initials became representative of the sense of alienation I felt from him, a sense confirmed by his loathsome behaviour as the relationship soured. (Those words ‘You belong to me’ are always a portent of dangerous possessiveness, IMO).

To read the rest of my review please visit

http://anzlitlovers.com/2013/04/20/a-...

[Kate Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing is very lyrical. The story is about two lonely people (narrated by them alternately) who are heading towards romance, and how all-consuming and overwhelming passion can be. It takes its time, examining more than a decade of their lives and how they come to be the people they are with the attitudes to love that they have. But it’s not just a love story, it’s also a story about parents and children and how that relationship changes as the children become adults and the parents are the ones who need support.

I learned a lot about the atmosphere of modern Croatia, from this book. And while it’s a simple story, it felt very real, with people and emotions brought completely alive. Sometimes it verged on heartbreaking, and it certainly delved thoroughly and believably into different types of loneliness.

However, the two narrative voices were very similar, in fact two very different fonts had been used to distinguish between them, which is not a sign of faith in the writing or the readers. And I was not hugely impressed with the technical quality of this book – the paper and print quality, design, typesetting and proof-reading could all have done with more care.

See my full review at: http://www.noseinabook.co.uk/2013/11/...

[Tonymess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is going to be a challenge – how on earth do I write a review about one of the most challenging and revealing love stories I’ve ever come across without revealing a little of myself? Many many moons ago I came across Milan Kundera’s “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” (it must have been over 25 years ago as the movie came out in 1988 and I saw that long after I’d read the novel), and its tale interweaving politics and love. Could what Kundera did for the eternal existentialist angst in Czechoslovakia be repeated by Koscec in Croatia?

Kundera gave us a roguish Tomas and the libertine Tereza, and Koscec gives us a male and a female narrative duet. I could go into ramblings about how similar I found some of the sections but then that would probably give the impression that this novel either owes something to the widely celebrated Kundera one or is inferior/superior in some way. I said this review was going to be a challenge and so it is turning out to be….stop that whole comparison thing, I’ll only get feedback that it didn’t work or some “expert” in Balkan literature giving me a lecture on my ignorance. So I’ll start again.

For a full review visit my blog at www.messybooker.blogspot.com

[Rob Forteath · Rating 2 out of 5]

After having read the Kindle version, I can understand why the print version would assign different fonts to the two narrators. Without this aid, it is often difficult to distinguish which of them is describing yet another soul-deadening incident from their bleak lives. Everything is brutal and meaningless. We understand this early on, but then are dragged through many more chapters of excruciating familial relations, workplace dysfunction, pitiable sexual encounters.

Eventually the author puts us out of our misery and gets to the climactic situation. The two meet and have a relationship. How magical and wonderful is this relationship? So wonderful in fact that one of them is relieved to end up alone, doing manual labour in a Winnipeg winter.

A novel filled with dire circumstances and misery can be an excellent novel. This one is not. There are some clever bits, some interesting observations and moments, but overall it seems to grind itself down into a torpor.

[Jai Lau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow. This was dark. The blurb could almost have been written about another book. Even in the darkest moments of the story, I still held tightly onto "we realise that she is the love of his life; something that she hopes he will realise before it is too late" thinking that there may be some light at the end of this depressive tunnel. In short, there wasn't. Both of the characters are completely incapable of love and what follows their coming together and parting is pretty brutal. The protagonist's behaviour takes a turn, a bad, bad turn. It is a shame that the story did not have a little bit of hope to clasp onto (I mean, as opposed to killing himself or ending up in prison, he does end up in Canada, which I hear is lovely - so there is that) because the writing is really good and easy to submerse into, even if the two character voices are very similar up to the point that they meet.

[Agnieszka Kloc · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the realm of literature, certain narratives often undergo a transformation, their essence perhaps obscured amidst the currents of translation. I believe such was the case with this particular book which proved to be a challenging read, falling into the category of these unrewarding endeavors. From start to finish, darkness, sadness, and a sense of hopelessness permeated its pages. I struggled to connect with the protagonists, but continued going with it hoping to glean some insights into Croatia—its culture, customs, and peculiarities. I found little of it in the end, and a lot more of difficult, emotional language that only accentuated the prevailing sense of despair in existence.

[Bogdan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I simply could not understand the story line. After about 2/3 of the novel, all I saw was unrelated paragraphs written in 2 or 3 voices. Some were discussing about first sexual experiences, others about losing family members. But they were as if taken from different stories and put together without any intention of creating a story.

[Marina Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prenatrpano

[Mandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

We meet one of the two main protagonists in this novel from Croatian writer Marinko Koscec in Canada as he looks back over his life in Croatia from his childhood onwards, from the years before the political upheavals and the Balkan wars of the 90s, to his decision to leave the newly formed nation. In alternate chapters we hear from the woman whose life parallels his and with whom he has had a passionate love affair. Each protagonist gradually reveals more and more about himself or herself as they muse on life, art, loneliness, family, creativity and illness. There are moments of warmth and tenderness, sometimes even of passion, but on the whole this is a dark book, sometimes offset by some black humour and cutting satire, but mostly with an emphasis on the failure to connect with others and to have a happy and successful existence. The language is lyrical and the plotting controlled, but I found reading this book rather challenging, not helped by the fact that I didn’t realise for a while that there were two different narrators. Apparently in the printed version they are each given a different font, but in the e-book I was given by Netgalley, there was no indication that you had moved on to another voice, and the voices weren’t really distinguishable until you got used to them. I didn’t warm to the characters in any case and this lack of empathy made it difficult for me to fully enter into their predicaments. I can appreciate that this is a well-written and atmospheric Bildungsroman but I felt on the outside all the time, and although I was glad to discover Koscec, this was not a book I particularly enjoyed.

[Istros Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been said that Koscec is one of Croatia's foremost literary stylists, and that is not an exaggeration. His wicked command of words and phrases often leaves us breathless, as his prose cascades over misfortunes and successes with equal verve and black humour. This is a book of character and situation rather than plot, and is therefore perhaps quintessentially linked to the region which it comes from. A Balkan book indeed - and one that challenges you to take it on!

[Sanja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een prachtig, verdrietig liefdesverhaal, geschreven op z'n Koščec': al spelend met de taal, kritisch op het scheve in de maatschappij, geestig, soms schertsend en altijd met een donkere ondertoon. Kon ik maar zo schrijven!

[Na Ta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Predajući joj što ima u sebi, čovjek se ukapa u nešto kao pijesak, koji nakratko oživi, stvarajući iluziju zamjenskog života, i to savršenijeg, u kojem sve je moguće, sve dohvatljivo, ali sve je od pijeska. Komešajući ga, u njemu se koprcajući, samo pomažemo vlastitom pretvaranju u pijesak.

[Iva]

sumorna,mračna i beznadna

[Sanja · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic book!

[Sarah Essbai · Rating 2 out of 5]

Left me with a bitter after taste...