Till Kingdom Come by Andrej Nikolaidis
“TILL KINGDOM COMES is … a compulsively readable mixture of humour and dark fate, Nikolaidis bitterly explodes all Balkan post-Communist myths. After reading it, you will hate life, but in an immensely happy way!” Slavoj Žižek
A cynical local reporter discovers that the grandmother who brought him up is actually not his blood relative. Suddenly, the past he has called his own turns out to be a complete fabrication; from the stories of his parents’ lives to the photos in the family albums.
Here starts the most important investigation the reporter has ever undertaken, and one in which the main character is the mother he never knew. He must find what links the woman who gave birth to him to the murderous past of the Yugoslav Secret Services and the liquidation of political opponents abroad and embark on a journey will take him to the site of wartime atrocities, on the trail of fake suicides across Europe, and back to the fate of a local Jewish mystic.
Through his own unique and now recognizable style, Nikolaidis takes us into a world of criminal intrigue and a dissection of our humble human existence. Powerful, rich in philosophy, readers will be gripped by this binding narrative and the existential dilemmas it reveals.
A reporter finds out that his past was fabricated and sets out to find the truth about his family. His investigation leads him to Yugoslav secret services, fake suicides, an occult Scottish clan…. Although the plot seems like a crime story combined with mysticism, what Nikolaidis offers is a complex yet readable novel with philosophical insights and existentialist issues.
Librarian’s Comments, Internaional Dublin Literary Award 2017
”Biting in intensity, taking broad political and historical swipes at medieval and modern history – poking the bones of Oliver Cromwell and stirring up the horrors of the Balkan War – Nikolaidis is in fine form…”
”A new and buoyant addition to that family of writers numbering Konrad, Kundera and Nádas in its ranks, he’s clearly one to watch.”
”The writing itself is gorgeous. I can’t get the description from the first few pages, about flooding and unceasing rain, out of my head…”
Chelsea McGill, Shiny New Books
”…pages and pages of wonderful observations, debunking of normal societal behaviours, rational explanations for the bizarre. Another fine work from Andrej Nikolaidis and yet another fine book from the independent publisher Istros Books…”
Tony Messenger (Messenger’s Booker)
ISBN: 9781908236-241
Price: £9.99
