The Star Mantle

Milorad Pavić is one of the key Serbian authors, whose prose combines magical realism with a hypertext game in which the reader can intervene in the course of events. “The Star Mantle” is at once reminiscent of a Zodiac sign handbook and becomes a journey through eras and spaces. One day, the heroine realizes: if she falls asleep, she wakes up in a new life—each time under a different constellation. She was a medieval girl, her memory full of love for a young man—a Water-Bearer—ready for murder; then she was a woman of the 20th century, whose opponent from the 18th century, born under Sagittarius, steals from her youth and time; later she found herself in Yugoslavia under bombings, suffering love for a Taurus who doesn’t even remember her name… Flipping through this zodiac guide, you will have to decide what her fate will be: to return her name and reunite the lovers, or—by doing nothing—leave them broken amid war.