Vladislav Bajacs Hamam Balkania available in Persian

Vladislav Bajac’s “Hamam Balkania” available in Persian

TEHRAN-The Persian translation of the book “Hamam Balkania” written by the Serbian writer Vladislav Bajac has been released in the Iranian book market.

Amir Kabir Publishers has brought out the book that has been translated by Yousef Sohrabi, IRNA reported.

This is a book that lives in two parts - one set in the Ottoman empire of the 16th century, and the other in the 21st century. It tells the story of two friends, both taken as children from their homes and inducted into the Turkish Sultan's private guard: Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, the Serbian shepherd boy who rose to the position of Grand Vizier and Koca Mimar Sinan, the “Michelangelo of the East”. 

Between them, they represent both destruction and creation, while at the same time providing readers with a harrowing insight into the heart of religion and identity. There is also the voice of the author, sharing his experiences in the modern world, and his musings on faith, identity and nation.

“Hamam Balkania” has won five awards. In the tradition of great modern Serbian novelists, Bajac twists and weaves a tale between old and new, modern and rusted, East and West, water and fire. 

This is a truly ambitious book that rewards the reader with insights into some of the great questions of our time.

The author's home country of Serbia is fascinated with its Ottoman roots, and this novel is no exception. Bajac takes the lives of ancient figures and weaves them together with flashing, real, and dirty characters from Western society's recent past - his stories at times dipping their pen into the well of memoir. 

Bajac has rubbed elbows with Leonard Cohen, and shared words and stages with literary greats - none of that is lost on the reader here. Two stories collide in the reader's mind, not on the pages, as if learning two different histories from two separate professors. 

Vladislav Bajac, 70, is a novelist, story-teller, poet and publisher. He has worked as a journalist and translator from English into Serbian, and has edited dozens of literary texts, including several anthologies and books. As an author, he has written six novels, three collections of short stories and two books of poetry. 

Bajac was the vice-president of the Serbian PEN Center 2008-10 and the founder and president of Geopoetika Publishing.

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source: tehrantimes.com