{"product_id":"houses-isbn-9781590179475","title":"Houses","description":"Building can be seen as a master metaphor for modernity, which some great irresistible force, be it Fascism or Communism or capitalism, is always busy rebuilding, and \u003ci\u003eHouses\u003c\/i\u003e is a book about a man, Arsénie Negovan, who has devoted his life and his dreams to building.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBon vivant, Francophile, visionary, Negovan spent the first half of his life building houses he loved and even named—Juliana, Christina, Agatha—while making his hometown of Belgrade into a modern city to be proud of. The second half of his life, after World War II and the Nazi occupation, he has spent in one of those houses, looked after by his wife and a nurse, in hiding. \u003ci\u003eHouses\u003c\/i\u003e is set on the final day of his life, when Negovan at last ventures forth to see the world as it is.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNegovan is one of the great characters in modern fiction, a man of substance and a deluded fantasist, a beguiling visionary and a monster of selfishness, a charmer no matter what. And perhaps he is right to fear that home is only an illusion in our world, or that only in illusion is there home.“Pekić writes with a wry grace that lets all the seriousness and thought fold inside a stubborn yet subtle farce. Accomplished and piquant.” —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eThe Houses of Belgrade\u003c\/i\u003e deserves the most honest praise a reviewer can give: it was so good I can’t wait to read [Pekić’s] first book for my own pleasure...Pekić has drawn his portrait with exquisitely subtle lines, choosing words with such care that Arseniev says worlds about himself while he is talking about someone else.” —Peter Grier, \u003ci\u003eThe Christian Science Monitor\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “In its best moments, [\u003ci\u003eThe Houses of Belgrade\u003c\/i\u003e] rates with the intricate writings of Russian and French masters...It is a naked eye that can take us into a building of cold-water flats...into the den of a wretched man—and then make us step back from this tremendous detail into the unimaginable widths of human suffering. Pekić has mirrored the world, its fire, its blood, in the clouded eye of a madman, in a bog, reducing its vastness to a few cubic feet of muddy water—and the reflection is ugly.” —Katherine Knorr, \u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Written in 1978, Mr. Pekiç's novel is a delicate farce that exemplifies the best of Yugoslavian literature… chronicles the life of Negovan, itself a mirror for the conflicts of the 20th century. \u003ci\u003eHouses\u003c\/i\u003e offers a fascinating window into literature of the other Europe.” —Karl Wolff, \u003ci\u003eNew York Journal of Books \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eBorislav Pekić \u003c\/b\u003e(1930–1992) was born in Montenegro and  educated in Belgrade, where he was arrested in 1948 for his founding  role in the Association of Democratic Youth of Yugoslavia and sentenced  to fifteen years of hard labor. Though he contracted tuberculosis during  the five years of the term he eventually served, he was able during  this period to draft extensive outlines for future writings, including  the family tree of the protagonist of \u003ci\u003eHouses\u003c\/i\u003e. After studying  psychology at the University of Belgrade, Pekić worked as a  screenwriter, collaborating on more than twenty scripts, among them \u003ci\u003eThe Fourteenth Day\u003c\/i\u003e, which represented Yugoslavia at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. His first novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Time of Miracles\u003c\/i\u003e, was published in 1965. In 1970, \u003ci\u003eHouses\u003c\/i\u003e won the prestigious NIN Award for best Serbian novel, and Pekić managed  to obtain a passport and emigrate to London. Living as an expatriate he  continued to write novels and advocate for democratic reform. In all,  Pekić would write more than thirty works of fiction and nonfiction and  saw some two dozen of his plays produced for the stage. Among his  notable works are \u003ci\u003eKako upokojiti Vampira\u003c\/i\u003e translated into \u003ci\u003eEnglish as How to Quiet a Vampire\u003c\/i\u003e, 1977) and the seven volume saga of the Negovan family, \u003ci\u003eZlatno Runo\u003c\/i\u003e (\u003ci\u003eThe Golden Fleece\u003c\/i\u003e,  1978–1986). Following the collapse of Communism, he returned  periodically to Serbia, finally helping to form the new Serbian  Democratic Party in 1990 and clashing with security forces at an  anti-Milošević rally in 1991. The next year he died of lung cancer in  London.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBernard Johnson\u003c\/b\u003e (1933–2003) was  affiliated with the Language Centre at the London School of Economics  for many years. In 1970 he edited and translated the first anthology of  modern Yugoslav literature, and throughout his career he distinguished  himself as one of the most active translators of Serbo-Croatian poetry  and prose working in English. In addition to \u003ci\u003eHouses\u003c\/i\u003e, NYRB Classics publishes Johnson’s translation of Aleksandar Tišma’s \u003ci\u003eThe Use of Man\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBarry Schwabsky\u003c\/b\u003e is the art critic for \u003ci\u003eThe Nation\u003c\/i\u003e and an editor at \u003ci\u003eArtforum\u003c\/i\u003e. His books include \u003ci\u003eThe Perpetual Guest: Art in the Unfinished Present\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eWords for Art: Criticism, History, Theory, Practice\u003c\/i\u003e and several poetry collections, most recently \u003ci\u003eTrembling Hand Equilibrium\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301775495397,"sku":"NP9781590179475","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590179475.jpg?v=1767729285","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/houses-isbn-9781590179475","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}