Publisher Description

From one of Serbia's greatest contemporary writers, Hidden Camera opens with the narrator finding a mysterious, blank envelope stuck in his apartment door inviting him to a private showing of a movie. Or so he initially thinks. Upon arrival at the theatre, he discovers that there's only one other person in the audience, a very attractive woman whom he's seated next to. Then things get a bit more mysterious. The movie he's been invited to see includes a scene showing him sitting in a park. Believing that he's an unwitting participant in a complicated hidden camera show, he goes along with the variety of setups he's faced with, which continue to get more involved and absurd. As the show develops, he becomes more and more paranoid and distrustful, but he keeps up the ruse to its thrilling conclusion.Hidden Camera was nominated for the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Author Biography

Zoran Zivkovic is the author of "The Book/The Writer, The Devil in Brisbane, The Fourth Circle, Hidden Camera," and "Seven Touches of Music," He is the recipient of the World Fantasy and the Milos Crnjanski Awards, was a two-time finalist for the International Dublin Literary and the Yugoslavian NIN Awards, and has been named a Guest of Honor for EuroCon 2007. His work has been published in 17 countries, broadcast on BBC radio, produced for television, and optioned for film.

Review

"For all his control of mood and language, Zivkovic is a writer who prefers the playful to the profound, the scattering of seeds to the harvest." - Gerald Turner, New York Times "Zivkovic does a superb job of communicating the befuddlement, confusion, and awe of individual characters as they wrestle with mysteries that exceed the understanding that their time, place and intellectual capacity permits." - Stefan Dziemianowicz, Publishers Weekly"

Kirkus US Review

A nameless mortician in a nameless city allows himself to be led through a series of dreamlike encounters while wondering if he is being filmed by hidden cameras. Alain Resnais, narrator of Serbian novelist ivkovic's surreal tale, is a middle-aged bachelor who finds on his apartment door an invitation to attend a film screening. Having nothing better to do than watch his aquarium, the undertaker attends the screening, where the usherette seats him next to the only other person in the audience, a woman in a large hat. The subject of the film turns out to be the narrator, who is shown sitting on a park bench where he is joined by, of all people, the woman in the big hat sitting next to him. When the lights go up, the lady has vanished, leaving in the mortician's lap an envelope that will lead him-after a hurried trip in a taxi driven by the doorman from the theatre-to his next encounter in a used bookstore, where the usherette turns up as the clerk. And the night is just getting started: There will be paranoid bus trips, bizarre encounters at a zoo and a flute and piano concert featuring the voice of the lady in the big hat. Sewers and cemeteries also figure here. For those who can't get enough of others' dreams and wish them recalled in great detail. (Kirkus Reviews)

Long Description

From one of Serbia's greatest contemporary writers, Hidden Camera opens with the narrator finding a mysterious, blank envelope stuck in his apartment door inviting him to a private showing of a movie. Or so he initially thinks. Upon arrival at the theater, he discovers that there's only one other person in the audience, a very attractive woman whom he's seated next to. Then things get a bit more mysterious. The "movie" he's been invited to see includes a scene showing him sitting in a park. Believing that he's an unwitting participant in a complicated hidden camera show, he goes along with the variety of setups he's faced with, which continue to get more involved and absurd. As the "show" develops, he becomes more and more paranoid and distrustful, but he keeps up the ruse to its thrilling conclusion.

Review Text

"The writing is wonderful, sometimes dense and foreboding, sometimes light and allusive, never less than accomplished, and always well-suited to the artistic task at hand."

Review Quote

" ivkovi does a superb job of communicating the befuddlement, confusion, and awe of individual characters as they wrestle with mysteries that exceed the understanding that their time, place and intellectual capacity permits."

Details