Singer in the Night

Olja Savičević

Translated by Celia Hawkesworth

Istros Books

Paperback

160pp

ISBN: 9781912545971

Fiction

Publication date: 15 April 2019

£9.99

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Famous soap opera scriptwriter, Naranča, is slowly losing her memory and decides to embark on a road trip down memory lane (in a golden convertible) in search of her greatest love and ex-husband, an artist whose uncompromising artistic integrity is opposed to Naranča’s fickle life in the world of TV drama. It is the memory of a series of letters written over several weeks and hand-delivered to the inhabitants of the street where they lived, that cracks open the novel. The letters, triggered by a mysterious couple who make love loudly for hours in the middle of the night, keeping the neighbourhood awake, touch upon the nature of love, war, lust, nationalism, capitalism, and childhood, highlighting the paradox of the human condition through playful humour.

Singer in the Nightis a rich, sensual novel which comments on communal perception, on how life is really lived. In its final message, the novel gives a playful warning about the consequences of choosing banality over true human connection.