Voices on the Wind

The novel “Voices in the Wind” reminds one of the Serbian version of “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” For this book, Grozdana Oluich was nominated for the prestigious NIN literary award, which was also given to Milorad Pavić and Goran Petrović.

On the seventeenth floor of the New York hotel where Danilo Arački stays, memories of his ancestors catch up with him. They find him again, reminding him of what he wanted to forget. On this long night, the story of his family unfolds before Danilo. At the doors of their family house in Karanovo, a German soldier appears, foreshadowing the last hours of his sister Veta’s life. Grandmother Simka Galichanka treats with words and herbs. Mother Natalya disappears with the twins after a raid. Grandfather Luka Arački rises into the sky in front of the townspeople. All of them are again with him in the hotel room. But among the ghosts there is no brother Petr. The search for Petr leads Danilo to the Meskvoki Indians, where the prophecy of Simka Galichanka comes true.

If you liked Gabriel García Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” Paolo Coelho’s “The Alchemist,” or Dina Rubina’s “The Maniac Gurevich,” this novel may also be to your liking.