Psi na jezeru

In a Belgrade hotel, a Canadian guest suffers a stroke and falls into a deep coma. As he is being carried out, the receptionist, a young man from the provinces, enters his name into a search engine and becomes obsessed: who is this unknown stranger? The novel develops in two narrative streams – in the first person, we follow the thoughts of a man in a coma, where a life full of exile, loss and unfulfilled dreams is revealed through fragments of memories; in the third person, the receptionist becomes attached to the guest, exploring his past through documents, stories and chance encounters. As if in mirrors that reflect each other, stories multiply: the heroes tell each other stories, and in these stories new ones are born, where every life is reduced to a single sentence – simple but profound.

Jergović, a master of melancholy, creates a fairy tale about loneliness in a globalized world: identity is lost in migration, exile and digital traces, and dogs on the lake – symbols of loyalty and sadness – wander through memories.