Book of the Week 5 (only slightly late now)

Fifth on my list was going to be Zoran Zivkovic's The Bridge. It arrived last week from PS Publishing, and I placed it to the top of my reading pile. It gave my reading of the book I was currently partway added impetus as I wanted to start The Bridge as soon as possible.

And I wasn't disappointed. Zivkovic's prose was as wonderful as ever. His plots as offbeat and seemingly almost directionless as ever, and everything was underpinned with the usual wonderful unselfconscious surreality. In short the book is superb and I do recommend you read it.

Here's the link in case you fancy taking a look.

http://store.pspublishing.co.uk/acatalog/current_catalogue.html#a399

But it's not my week's choice, because of the book that I picked up immediately afterwards. This, even better title, was Steps through the Mist - also be Zoran Zivkovic.

Steps through the Mist is a short story collection. It's not a long book, barely 100 pages, and you can't say that each page is overflowing with text - there is a lot of white space surrounding the words. But it is simply magickal.

There are just five stories in this short, very elegant book, each one featuring in some way mist. From dreams, through precognition and onwards Zivkovic tells his own unique and highly compelling brand fo fiction. There's whimsy, surreal sad acceptance and above all else, no feeling of needing to comply with accepted forms for fiction. He doesn't wrap things up neatly in the typical mainstream way. If he feel likes leaving something hanging in midstride he will - and does often.

But the stories are beautiful. Zivkovic is rapidly becoming one of my favourite writers - one I cannot hesitate to recommend to anyone open to something a little different in their fiction.

Normal links

Amazon US
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1933083107/theeternalnig-20

Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1933083107/theeternanightsf

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