Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
Oleg and Nikola--hustlers, entrepreneurs, ambassadors of capitalism--have come to the town of N to build an obsolete turbine, never mind why. Enlisting the help of former engineer Sobotka, they reopen the old turbine factory, preaching the gospel of "self-organization" and bringing new life to the depressed post-communist town. But as the project spins out of control, Oleg and Nikola find themselves increasingly entangled with the locals, for whom this return to past prosperity brings bitter reckonings and reunions. At once a savage sendup of our current political moment and a rueful elegy for what might have been, this sprawling novel blends tragedy and comedy in its portrayal of ordinary people wondering where it all went wrong, and whether it could have gone any other way.