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The Son follows one night in the life of a hero with no name, a writer whose life is on the verge of falling apart. One fateful afternoon, his wife leaves him and his long-term conflict with his father, who blames our hero for his mother's death, comes to a head. Incapable of finding inner calm-for our hero is a man who cannot seem to adapt to new times and rules-he steps into the warm Mediterranean night that has fallen in the city of Ulcinj, itself a multilayered mixture of European dimensions, African influences and the communist past.
On his journey into the night, the writer meets an assortment of characters: a piano student from Vienna who has abandoned his musical career and converted to Islam, a radical Christian preacher and a group of refugees from Kosovo. In the style of Mihail Bulgakov, the characters meet in the old city of Ulcinj at the dramatically named Square of the Slaves. It is here where, in times of old, the pirates who lived in the city until the nineteenth century would bring and sell captured slaves, amongst them Miguel de Cervantes. And it is here that the dénouement of this fascinating novel takes place.
About the author
ANDREJ NIKOLAIDIS was born in 1974 to a mixed Montenegrin-Greek family and raised in Sarajevo, Bosnia. In 1992, following the breakout of ethnic strife in the country that soon erupted into an all-out war, Nikolaidis' family moved to Ulcinj, his father's hometown in Montenegro, where still lives. An ardent supporter of Montenegrin independence, anti-war activist and promoter of human rights, especially minority rights, Nikolaidis initially became known for his political views and public feuds, appearing on local television and in newspapers with his razor-sharp political commentaries. He writes regular columns for the daily newspaper Vijesti, and the weekly news magazine Slobodna Bosna. He is a columnist at Delo (Ljubljana) and E-novine (Belgrade), and has recently written a number of articles for The Guardian. Andrej Nikolaidis is one of the most outspoken and acclaimed writers in the Balkan region. His novels, philosophical works and articles have been translated into several languages, and have won him both awards and notoriety. He lives and writes in the ancient Montenegrin port city of Ulcinj. Winner of the European Prize for Literature 2011
Summary
The Son follows one night in the life of a hero with no name, a writer whose life is falling apart. Stepping into the warm, Mediterranean night, in the southern Mediterranean city of Ulcinj, he encounters fanatics, thieves and prostitutes and learns the secret of his father's one obsession.
