Hamam Balkania

by Vladislav Bajac

Translated from the original Serbian

by Randall A. Major

To say that Hamam Balkania  is a historical novel, is to reveal only one piece of a puzzle, the one which fits in the sky part of a large sea landscape. It is extremely important, that is true, but the way Vladislav Bajac performs his little literary alchemy trick by turning a grand, totalizing narrative into something personal, and thus giving it credibility, zest and liveliness is truly amazing. The Ottoman Empire and its subjects in South-eastern Europe, East and West, Sokollu Mehmed Pasha and Loca Mimar Sinan, destruction and creation are the crucial elements of the meticulously organized story.

Vladislav Bajac is a novelist, story-teller, poet and publisher, born in 1954 in Belgrade. He studied Yugoslav and World Literature at the Faculty of Humanities in Belgrade. He has also worked as a journalist and translator. From English into Serbian, he has edited and translated dozens of literary texts, including several anthologies and books .His poetry and prose has been translated into a dozen foreign languages. He lives in Belgrade.

The Ottoman Empire and its subjects in south eastern Europe, destruction and creation, are the crucial elements of this meticulously organised story. In a story of a friendship of unique soul-searching and redemption, we are offered a picture of the world that gently warns us to be careful, patient and wise when forming opinions, both of the things we know well, and of those that reach us through history.

A human dram on double identities of a Serbian Orthodox Christian boy, who becomes a Grand Vizier in the 16th century Ottoman Empire. The other line of this historical story is the contemporary world with characters like Orhan Pamuk