Andonovski’s books are passionate. In each page we find longing, moments, happiness and quenching of longing. Philosophical debates where he points the questions directly at the reader, examining him, leaving him awake, asking how much does he know about himself… A real navel of the human soul.
Biography
Venko Andonovski (born 1964, Kumanovo) is a short story writer, novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, literary critic and theoretician. He is a professor at the Faculty of Philology “Blaze Koneski” in Skopje, as well as a member of the Macedonian PEN Centre and the Macedonian Writers’ Association since 1990. He is the author of the following books: “The Barbarian’s Tender Heart” (poetry 1986), “The Lyric Poets’ Quarter” (short stories, 1989), “Frescoes and Grotesques” (short stories, 1993), “Alphabet of the Disobedient” (novel, 1993), “Text Processes” (essays, 1996) “Matosh’s Bells” (study, 1996), “Structure of the Macedonian realistic novel” (study, 1997), “Three plays – Slavic Chest, Mutiny in the Old People’s Home, Hades Machine” (1998), “Decodings” (2000), “Navel of the World” (novel, 2001), “Witch” (novel, 2006), “Daughter of the Mathematician” (2013), “Alphabet” (2020). Awards include: “Racin’s Award”, first prize for best novel by the publishing house “Zumpres”, an award for best drama text at the “Vojdan Chernodrinski” festival in Prilep, Novel of the Year Award, and “Balkanika” award. He has also published a writing handbook titled “The Opiates of the breathtaking writing (A Personal Theory of Prose and Drama Without a Footnote” – a thought-provoking work that is found useful to all generations of writers.
For the French edition of the novel “Witch”, Milan Kundera, after comparing Andonovski with Hermann Broch and Carlos Fuentes, has named the novel “too modern”, a book from the third historical epoch in the development of the novel. According to him, it is a masterful polyphonic work in the surprising variety of narrative techniques.
In 2022 Andonovski has released the sequel to “Navel of the World” titled “Navel of the Light” (that has five Macedonian editions by now) which brought him the award “Stale Popov” and The Tolstoy award “Jasna Poljana” for the Russian translation made by Olga Pankina.
He is currently preparing to publish his first comic novel titled ‘Alexander Rides West’ in which he tries to give history a comic-satirical character. With this title the author announced a genre rarely explored in our literary tradition, offering a bold new narrative tone.
Outstanding title:
THE NAVEL OF THE WORLD (2000)
This novel is a mystification on several levels: the book consists of an introduction, supposedly written by a brother of a certain V., a late circus performer. In his estate, the brother – a pedantic clerk – finds a manuscript of a novel and diary entries and he is thinking about publishing them.
Following this introduction are a novel “The Navel of the World”, another novel “Impact”, and diaries entitled “Light”. The book concludes with an afterword by a literary scholar Venko Andonovski and photocopies of several poems written by the young V. The book has been published in twelve editions in N. Macedonia only.
No. of pp: 350
Awards and honors:
- Novel of the Year Award for 2000
- Balkanika Award for 2000
- Jugra Award in 2014
Rights sold to:
France, Russia, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Albania and Bulgaria.
Latest title:
THE NAVEL OF THE LIGHT (2022)
Jan Ludwing in “The Navel of the World” was an atheist and globalist and believed that man himself could create a political paradise on earth. Twenty years later Jan from “The Navel of the Light” believes that there is no better world if there is no better man.
For whether God exists or not, man has one thing that God does not: the ability to become better. God cannot be better, for He is perfect. But man can.
No. of pp: 315
Awards and honors:
- “Stale Popov” Award for best prose book by Society of Macedonian writers for 2023
- “The Yasnaya Polyana” Literary Award by the Leo Tolstoy Museum Estate in 2023
Rights sold to:
- Russia.
Sample in English available HERE
Rights:
TRI Publishing Centre
tri@kniga.mk
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