Publishers Weekly hails Zoran's Steps Through the Mist...
The New York Times Book Review calls Zoran a possible "new Borges"...
The Summer Isles makes the GLBT Spectrum Award's list of recommended novels...
Zoran takes on radio! Listen to his interview with an Iowa bookstore owner...
Zoran is named EuroCon 2007 Guest of Honor...
Seven Touches of Music wins an 11-state design award...
Locus Magazine included Seven Touches of Music in its short list of "new and notable" titles in 2006. Other praise for Zoran's work is plentiful, resounding from pretty much every country where he has been published. Here's a delicious little sampling...
(Click on the title of each publication to be taken to the full review on their site)
"And then, every so often, you come across a work whose vividness and vitality are so abundant they seem to transcend language. The Serbian author Zoran Zivkovic... already has many passionate supporters in America, and though it is too soon to crown him the new Borges, Seven Touches of Music makes him a leading candidate for the position."
"For audiences raised on the non-stop action of adventure-based fantasy and science fiction, the intellectual and psychological intricacies of works by people like Jorge Luis Borges or J. G. Ballard might .... have little or nothing in common with what they are used to reading. Yet ... they will find the rewards from this type of work far outweigh the perceived action.
"One of the past masters of this style of writing is Zoran Zivkovic, and his recently published novella Seven Touches of Music offers further proof of just how good he is. In it he introduces elements of the bizarre into the mundane with eerie and thought-provoking results.
"It’s the questions that this book asks, not the answers it provides, that makes it interesting, and as long as you’re willing to take that trip with the characters, it will be one of the most rewarding reads you’ve had in a long time."
"You may remember that back in January I waxed poetic about a beautiful little book by Serbian author Zoran Zivkovic called Seven Touches of Music. Winner of multiple awards, Seven Touches of Music is truly extraordinary ... Zivkovic is a master of the Mosaic form."
"In each of the seven stories that make up this slim black volume, [a] mosaic novel, the playing of music triggers—as if by magic—an episode that subtly mixes science fact and the tropes of science fiction.
"Each of [the] first five stories, pieces of a puzzle, follows a pattern: the protagonist in each lives a life of solitude, of quiet desperation; a touch of music leads to an odd happening or vision; and when the music fades they go back to living their quiet life—changed, at least within the span of the story, only by the hidden, private knowledge they gain. Each story has none of the artificial "resolution" common in many stories, and while readers who need definite endings may be left with more questions than answers, each story nonetheless feels complete and satisfying.
"The final two stories break the pattern, giving shape to the overall collection.
"...While physics continues its search for a unifying theory, Živković works at unifying literature, showing the value of creativity and speculative imagination in understanding our world and universe. It is perhaps not entirely coincidental that the font used on the cover makes "Seven Touches of Music" look very much like "seven touches of magic."
"Each of the stories in Seven Touches of Music follows a middle-aged or older character, usually identified by first name only, living a quiet life in a sleepy, possibly Eastern European town. The characters all receive sudden, fantastic, sometimes disturbing visions... triggered when the characters hear music, but the stories are not really about music; rather, music is the gateway to a glimpse of something missing from their lives.
"[This velvety hardcover edition] perfectly suits Zoran Zivkovic's elegant writing style (for which we should also give some credit to translator Alice Copple-Tosic). Zivkovic's prose is spare and understated, yet he can make the simplest story elements bear a heavy emotional weight... The stories are all superbly crafted and emotionally charged."
"In each story the main character experiences a change in [his/her life] that can make that life richer, more fulfilling, or out of control... The stories are simple vignettes but they hit with a punch that leaves you thinking... Translated from the Serbian by Alice Copple-Tosic, the stories read smoothly and with a lyricism to the language that is itself almost musical."
"The finished version of Seven Touches of Music is a masterpiece of understated style and elegance... the whole product oozes quality. This book, Aio is saying, is not just a collection of stories; it is a work of Art. Any author would, I think, be proud to have their work showcased so beautifully.
"But what of that content? Well, it kind of depends on whether you are a Živković sort of reader.
"...Živković stories are impressionist rather than realist. They convey mood rather than meaning. They are disturbing rather than comforting, but strange rather than frightening or disgusting. If you like that sort of fiction then, like me you will continue to seek out Zoran Živković’s work wherever you can find it.
"...You never know: you might discover, if you give his work a try, just how good he is."
The Internet Review of Science Fiction (IROSF):
"At first glance [this Aio edition] looks like a diary rather than a novel: small, with a black hardcover and no dust jacket, black-edged pages of high-quality stock. Everything about it is designed to make clear that this is not your usual work of fantasy fiction.
"...The common theme has some scope for interpretation. My reading is that it's about the price of gaining perfect knowledge or achieving the moment of perfect inspiration and the impossibility, even if you grasp it yourself, of explaining that inspiration to others.
"In the end, neither the repetitiveness nor the occasional clunk are enough to derail this project. ...This is an intriguing book, and one that requires some serious brain-exercise in tackling it, for all its apparent simplicity. Reading it was a refreshing break from the norm."
"Music may have, at times, charms to soothe the savage beast. If you're looking for stories where this happens, though, you won't find them in Seven Touches of music, a collection—or mosaic—of stories by Serbian author Zoran Zivkovic, loosely connected by the theme of music's power over the human psyche. Instead, you'll read disquieting accounts of individuals who experience strange revelations provoked by their encounters with music.
"Each of the first six stories are tied together within the context of the concluding story, 'The Violin Maker,' and all leave the reader with the same type of eerie feeling evoked by an episode of Rod Serling's 'The Twilight Zone.' Kudos also to Aio Publishing Company for the book's beautifully executed cover...
"Readers interested in quirky supernatural... stories in a beautiful package will enjoy Seven Touches of Music."
"Aio Publishing puts out some of the most wonderful books-as-artifact I've seen. Zoran Zivkovic's 'Seven Touches of Music' is just such an artifact. The cover is thick and pleasant to the touch. The interior of the cover is textured, the pages are thick and creamy and edged in black. I lingered on most pages just to enjoy the sensual pleasures.
"Of course, a diamond-studded garbage bag still contains rotten eggs, discarded coffee grounds, raw chicken squirmy with maggots. But fortunately, Mr. Zivkovic's stories are gems. ...For example, the first, 'The Whisper', involves a frustrated special education teacher, Dr. Martin. ...When Dr. Martin plays Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Opus 21, one student behaves in a manner that leads Dr. Martin into the mathematical structure of the universe and the deepest mysteries of the human mind.
"This is a book to savor, to read and reread, to love."
"Aio has managed to create a package every bit as striking as the writer's work, no small feat when it comes to a writer as distinguished and talented as Zivkovic. Seven Touches of Music brings together seven different pieces of a very peculiar and powerful puzzle, with the connecting theme of music at the heart of the work. Think of Borges and Calvino, or Jeff Vandermeer. Then erase your brain, or really, no need. Zivkovic will do that for you. He has that gift of effortless prose that envelops you and is startlingly easy to read even as it drives daggers into your perception of the world as well as your heart."
"Seven Touches of Music is a mosaic novel, a collection of seven related stories, written in Zivkovic's trademark style and bringing to life the crisp, obscure magic that is typical of his work. ...Using simple characters with minimal history, Zivkovic enters the experience of seven men and women, exploring the supernatural effect of music on their lives.
"Seven Touches of Music is a showpiece; beautifully presented. Indeed, Aio Publishing has been awarded for its design work in the past. The handsome black hardcover combines texture with bold imagery and elegant font, while the black-edged paper and thick, ribbed endpages give the small volume a sense of opulence. This book is a fine example of high quality fabulist fiction and would make a wonderful gift for lovers of speculative literature or the magic of music."
"Signing on this world-renowned author from Belgrade of the former Yugoslavia is a real literary coup for this small but erudite publishing company. They are making quite a name for themselves in speculative literary fiction.
"Although identified as a fantasy, this collection of short stories centered around musical themes has nothing to do with swords and dragons, but with highly nuanced what ifs that use their musical themes to construct a literary ensemble of thoughtful pieces that raise questions and speculations of the Old World. Reading this work is like sipping from a wine glass and swirling it around to get its true taste.
"The stories range in emotion from humor to poignancy to chilling. Zivkovic's characters are believable and complex. He has a way of telling the reader, "This story could go this way or that. Which way do you think it went?" A very interesting collection."
"Aptly subtitled a mosaic novel, [Seven Touches of Music] very much resembles its cover: black, the overall design unusual and quite beautiful. This darkness is pierced with just a touch of glimmer—the metallic green letters of the title. Even the edges of the book are black.
"All seven of the stories in this novel are black as well—very dark, very powerful and very beautiful at times. They all talk about more or less ordinary people... The stories are short and vivid, connected by music as a magical and sometimes slightly supernatural phenomenon. The language, which is quite terse at moments, flows beautifully.
"Seven Touches of Music is a beautifully written book that I'd highly recommend to lovers of good fiction and anyone who does not mind thinking a bit while reading a book."
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Earlier praise...
"Zivkovic's work is marked by a quiet and graceful style… by an interest in time, in the effects of knowledge of the future and the past on people's lives, and by a pronounced tendency towards metafictional effects.
"Seven Touches of Music is perhaps the most impressive of these three books. The seven stories all feature music, not surprisingly, usually as a catalyst for some strange message, or curious intrusion. ...Zoran Zivkovic is revealed here as one of the more interesting voices in contemporary [speculative fiction]."
Strange Horizons:
"Zivkovic's writing draws from that magical realist tradition whose most frequently dropped names include Mikhail Bulgakov, Salmon Rushdie, Jorge Luis Borges, and Isabel Allende... but he brings to his work a humane, humanist, European perspective, creating images and experiences through his prose which remain with the reader for a long time."
"Zivkovic's customary metier is the suite of stories. Some kind of device links the stories in each. Quite often, a story leaves things hanging, in the manner of the nineteenth-century chestnut 'The Lady or the Tiger?' More gratifying, even though they own and use computers, Zivkovic's characters seem decidedly nineteenth century. They are as intelligent and as neurotic as Poe's personae, and admirers of that master of the outre—or of Borges, Gogol, Capek, and Lem—will be enthralled by them."
"In Seven Touches, all sevenstories concern moments of ephemeral revelation, some of which leave no mark beyond the illusory instant of their perception, glimpses into mysteries that remain just out of view, or are snatched from the protagonists at the approach of full apprehension…These stories at first glance appear deceptively simple, and can be read swiftly in a single sitting, afterward easily set aside in their understated modesty. However a memory of their image remains to nag at the periphery of comprehension: a sense of things unseen or missed, a barely heard word or the shifting contour of a shape that fades just as it comes into view, eluding apperception and scrutiny. There is something haunting about these tales, beyond the occult or surreal experiences of the narratives' characters, or the wistful solitude of their existence.
"Meditations, each story possesses the whispered longing and apprehension of a prayer. Reiterative in their elements, these narratives quietly succeed through a compression of language and imagery and a concision of language that should never be overlooked. Phrases within one story inform what will follow in another and, similar to the vibrations of a stringed instrument, create resonances that will echo throughout each story, to be replayed, if faintly and from a differing score, over and over again."
"Zivkovic is, without a doubt, one of the world's greatest living fantasists... His stories combine a completely liberated imagination with the stylistic sensibilities of the masters from the Golden Age."
"Teasing and clever, fantastical, witty and dark, [Zivkovic's mosaic novels] get the reader thinking but wear their deep themes lightly; they are mysterious, sometimes even enigmatic, but always accessible.
"Zivkovic's fiction is, above all, always readable, always entertaining. To read these books in succession is akin to dreaming a sequence of vivid dreams, from which one awakes with a heightened perception of life's beauty and strangeness. Their deceptive simplicity masks an attention to small details, like the precision of each setting described in Hidden Camera, or the thread of purple which runs through the stories in Twelve Collections, linking them together and hinting at the thematic whole. Each scene is constructed like a piece of literary marquetry. The fantastic element is used for the best purpose possible: in order to pose the most daring and ultimate questions."
"It was the fresh writing and original voice that lingered in my mind: vivid writing augmented by eccentricity and humour. In the rather homogenised world of mainstream publishing, books such as this one often don’t get the chance to shine because flawed originality rarely outsells accomplished predictability. ...Without novels like this in the world, reading would be a wholly less interesting activity."
Radikal Kitap (Instanbul, Turkey):
"Readers of both fantastic fiction and high literature will find it very much worth their while to discover this 2003 World Fantasy Award winning author."
Click here to return to Zoran Zivkovic's page, or click here for Zoran's news page, which has images of some of the publications where reviews of his work has appeared.
