Impossible Stories II [hc] by Zoran Zivkovic

TITLE: Impossible Stories II

A COLLECTION by Zoran Zivkovic

PUBLICATION DATE: August 2009

EDITION: Hardcover

COVER ART: Hawk Alfredson

PRINT RUN: 500 unsigned

ISBN: 978-1-905834-30-3

SYNOPSIS:

IN IMPOSSIBLE STORIES II YOU WILL FIND

COMPARTMENTS On a strange train journey, in a series of six compartments, a traveller experiences unpredictable encounters, culminating in a meeting of epiphanic power. Through a narrative of dreamlike sharpness COMPARTMENTS taps into the fears and absurdities, the beauties and mysteries of the unconscious mind, to achieve a consummation both moving and full of hope.

FOUR STORIES TILL THE END In what strange edifice of the imagination do you find a condemned cell, a hotel room and a hospital room? What kind of hotel offers a zinc mine, a meat-packing plant, a weapons factory and a cemetery of famous artists among its attractions? Why do four people commit suicide in the same bathroom and why does a literature professor cut up several of the greatest works of literature into a confetti of letters? In this wildly imaginative, wildly funny satire on Art and Death nothing is quite what it seems and the maze of symbols grows more complex with each encounter.

AMARCORD Ten linked stories with resonant titles explore almost every conceivable aspect of human memory: the positive and the negative, the precious and the profane, the heavenly and the unbearably hellish. Zivkovic's deceptively simple tales anatomise the essence of what makes human beings tick, our passions, our vanities and yearnings; the very memories which make us who we are.

From Publishers Weekly: Zivkovic (The Writer/The Book/The Reader) masterfully filters memory and art through absurdism in this limited edition collection. Compartments follows an unnamed man as he is escorted through six rooms on a train, encountering odd travelers who tell him about a mysterious muse-like woman. Four Stories Till the End, the pinnacle of both storytelling and strangeness, features four people, each interrupted in turn by guests who tell art-themed stories with delightful digressions on the horrible crimes prevented by circus detectives and the need for any top hotel to have a weapons factory. Amarcord, named for Fellini's 1973 film, comprises 10 short stories wherein various people buy, sell and lose their memories.Two shorter pieces round out the collection, which neither has nor needs mainstream appeal; fans of Zivkovic's unclassifiable quirkiness will quickly snap up all 500 copies. (Sept.)