No-signal Area

(Paperback)

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The second novel by the highly praised post-war Croatian writer. "Robert Perisic is a light bright with intelligence and twinkling with irony, flashing us the news that postwar Croatia not only endures but matters."--Jonathan Franzen Witty and ambitious, No-Signal Area is a sprawling novel, smart and just cynical enough to frame and give an edge to the abiding nostalgia that is its real subject. A group of entrepreneurs brings roaring back to life a defunct turbine factory and the town around it, promising a return to the days of dignity, jobs and the good life and bright future that a manufacturing center can dispense to a small town. But is a return to the days of plenty possible And what of the changed relationships between lovers, and within families, that have transpired in the years since that earlier time Perisic takes us there, into the past and into the future, and watches with a bemused sad smile as the inevitable wreaks havoc with the possible. Robert Perisic's second novel to be translated into English is a cause for delight.

Reviews

"No-SignalAreais a mind-blowing reada story of crime and heroism in the real-life aftermath of an all-white race war, told with wisdom, sophistication, and passion." Nell Zink, author of Doxology

"InNo-Signal AreaPerisic brilliantly captures the absurdity and chaos of a society in transition. A poetic punk ethos saturates the bookdefiant, anarchic, exuberant, and ironicperfect for a story about hustlers and workers and dreamers and mercenaries in post-war, post-truth Croatia." Miriam Toews, author of Women Talking

Robert Perii is a light bright with intelligence and twinkling with irony, flashing us the news that postwar Croatia not only endures but matters. Jonathan Franzen, author of The Correctionsand Freedom

"In Perisics poignant telling, the erasure of Yugoslavia and its socialist experiment continues to haunt its people, exes now adrift in a postwar vacancy. This void may be familiar to any reader who no longer feels connection to the divided, damaged nation he or she inhabits." --New York Times

A novel that shows postwar Croatia suspended between socialism and capitalism and between hopelessness and hilarity. The farcical tone that opens the latest from the highly acclaimed author leads to darker and deeper implications within an expansive novel that suggests insanity might be the best way to adapt to the new normal of a world gone mad and that language has blurred any distinction between truth and lies... Ultimately, these are people caught between -isms, between an unworkable past and an unthinkable future... Toward the end, the third-person narration gives way to a series of first-person soliloquies, and at first it can be a challenge to tell who is speakingbut that confusion ultimately reinforces the sense that individual voices, lives, and fates are being subsumed within the chaos of systems falling apart. The climax finds art markets and revenue streams converging in a way that seems both impossible and inevitable.A sharp, subversive novel of ideas that seems to reflect an era in which ideas themselves are bankrupt. Kirkus Reviews(starred review)

"Two men arrive in a rural Eastern European town to arrange for the reopening of a local factory in this sharp portrayal of modern capitalism from Perisic (Our Man in Iraq). Upon arriving in N, Oleg and Nikola plan to reopen the factory, which has been shut for many years after the break-up of the Soviet Union, with the help of the locals in order to manufacture two industrial turbines to fulfil a contract Oleg has arranged with the Colonel, the leader of a Middle Eastern country. Once the factory is running, Perisic broadens the storys focus, moving back in time to give Nikola and Olegs backstories, exploring the lives of villagers and those who have left or been forced from the village, and circling back to a crashing grand finale. Impressively blending the absurd, dire, and comic, Perisic relates often tragic events, but his characters somehow manage to persevere. This clever, ambitious take on the influences of capitalism on Eastern Europe will be perfect for fans of Umberto Eco."Publishers Weekly

"This is a remarkable novel; one that makes demands on the reader in all the best ways. On the surface, it is a scam story set in the backwater Balkan town of N., where those forgotten by time in the aftermath of the collapse of the Cold War and the very hot ones which followed, subtly acquires a rich, complex universality. Where lies and deception define reality, only the mad live in the unreality of truth. Everything becomes a show without substanceall the more alluring to those cast adrift. Filled with complicated characters, deft storytelliing, and a sublime intellectual depth, Robert Perisic's novel should be sought after and savored." Shawn Wathen, Chapter One Bookstore, Hamilton, MT

Author Bio

ROBERT PERISIC has published award-winning nonfiction, fiction, poetry and criticism in his native Croatia. He began writing short stories in the 1990s with a clear anti-war sentiment, during the days following the devastating war that tore apart the former Yugoslavia, and is now considered to be one of the most important writers and literary critics in the region. When first published in 2008, Our Man in Iraq spent eight weeks at the top of Croatia's bestseller list and won the prestigious Jutarnji List award. He currently lives in Zagreb. The book is translated by ELLEN ELIAS-BURSAC and ALEX HOYT.