Na trecem trgu: Antologija nove kratke price Bosne i Hercegovine, Hrvatske, Srbije i Crne Gore.

Forrester, Sibelan

Na trecem trgu: Antologija nove kratke price Bosne i Hercegovine, Hrvatske, Srbije i Crne Gore. Sroan Papic, project coordinator. Selja Sehabovic, Olja Savicevic Ivancevic, & Jelena Angelovski, eds. Belgrade/ Kikinda. Narodna biblioteka "Jovan Popovi" / Trea Trg. 2006. 213 pages. 8.24 [euro]. ISBN 86-7378-018-7

THIS is A SUPERB SELECTION of new authors and short stories from Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, and Serbia/Montenegro, each section compiled by an editor from that country. The afterword's stress on work in a "mutually understandable language" suggests a fertile literary scene where writers search out, admire (or detest), learn from, and react to any other artistic personalities they can understand.

The book was published in Belgrade, but it contains much more ijekavian than ekavian (or ikavian). The stories offer other linguistic features: Dalmatian dialect; Vlado Bulic's play with local variants in "www.i-buy.hr." Mima Simic exploits gender-marking that, like the Spanish nosotras, allows clear expression of lesbian sexuality. Other languages appear, especially English but also Hungarian (Andrea Pisac's "Return to Balatonszentgorgy"); references to Amsterdam and the United States evoke exile and emigration. Some stories stress violence and war (especially those of Sroan Papic), but more do not; love and sex dominate in the stories from Bosnia and Hercegovina.

The thought-provoking selection mixes more traditional styles with experimental pieces, with an average of twelve pages per author. Here is "The Visit," by Jovanka Uljarevic, in its entirety:

"Good evening. Forgive me for disturbing you, but you've been doing that to us for a long time, so I had to drop in and ask you to turn down that dreadful music."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I was alone in the building. I didn't know you were living here too."

"I am not living."

"No?!"

"I'm just an apparition."

"But you rang at my door and I opened it. I see you. I can touch you if I want to."

"I think that's your problem."

Enes Halilovic's "The Sock," a timeless parable on exile, is especially recommended.

The book has an unfortunate number of typographical errors, and the review copy is missing one page. Nevertheless, the approach and realization are cheering. Eight of the fourteen authors and editors are women, and any foreboding at a "former Yugoslav" anthology lifts upon seeing a Muslim name among the authors from Serbia and Montenegro. The stories are almost all of high quality, and the authors really are new, all born between 1974 and 1980. Na trecem trgu is very much worth reading.

Sibelan Forrester

Swarthmore College