Igor Štiks

Alternating chapters tell competing stories: one from the Middle Ages and one of Yugoslavia just after Tito split with Stalin in 1948. An excellent book ill-served by its translator (another grad student working on his MFA in translation). Although another professional translator (whose work I have read an enjoyed) is credited, I suspect he had little hand in the actual work. The translation is too literal and doesn’t flow as easily as it should. Very well done and I’ll look out for his work in the future.… (plus d'informations)

This book is definitely worth the effort of getting through the heavy literary style that Igor Stiks uses to tell the story of a famous writer and journalist, Richard Richter, who travels to worn-torn Sarajevo to find the father he'd never known. His tragic quest—brought about by the shocking discovery of his mother's notebook—leads him to a passionate love affair, a shocking revelation, and ultimately to a decision to take his own life. Although the plot is transparent early on, that fact doesn't deter the reader from anxiously turning the pages to share Richard's joys and disappointments along his road to self-discovery. I found this book profoundly moving and unforgettable and highly recommend it.… (plus d'informations)

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A Castle in Romagna by Igor Štiks (translated by Russell Scott Valentino & Tomislav Kuzmanovic) is a fictional book alternating in timeline and places, telling two stories which are connected. Mr. Štiks is a prolific Croatian author and editor.

The novel alternates between Renaissance Italy and Tito’s Yugoslavia. A young Bosnian and his friends are touring an Italian castle in 1995, which once held poet Enzo Strecci captive. A friar who live at the castle, Niccolò Darsa, starts talking with the young man offering his own story of escaping from a hostile environment, politically charged.

The story parallels those of Darsa and Strecci where all powerful leaders use their position for petty vendettas, destroying lives and country in the process.

A Castle in Romagna by Igor Štiks (translated by Russell Scott Valentino & Tomislav Kuzmanovic) is a short, but verbose novel. I’m glad I read it, but for much of it I was trudging through, until it comes together at the end.

Even though this is a short book (about 100 pages), it is not easy to read. The author’s rambling style, incorporating long, drawn out sentences is hard to follow and I found myself reading the same line twice.

The subject matter is serious and dark. Emotional leaders making bad decisions, abusing their authority. Humanity, however, stays the same regardless of the external circumstances.

This book is dramatic, but it simply didn’t excite me. There was something muted in the narrative and the delivery. I got the themes, I got the parallels, and I got the ideas (I believe) that the author was trying to convey. Overall the novel was enjoyable, I just felt it fell a bit short.… (plus d'informations)

[The Judgment of Richard Richter] is a riveting and haunting story of a man who finds that everything he thought was true about himself was not. Both plot and character are a slow build. This reminds me of some of the great reads of the 19th century. This is not a feel good book; it is depressing and fatalistic. The time period is the Bosnian War and "action" shifts between Vienna and Sarajevo. This book was translated into English from Croation. The author is originally from Bosnia from which his family fled during the Bosnian War. 300 pages 5 stars… (plus d'informations)