The Coming
by Andrej Nikolaidis
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Description
In a small town on the Adriatic coast, a local detective is content to sacrifice truth for the sake of telling his clients the stories they want to hear. The Coming reads at first like a traditional detective novel, then suddenly changes form with the advent of snow in mid-summer. When the town library burns down under mysterious circumstances, the detective's long-lost son begins to get involved in the investigations from afar. He takes the reader on excursions into history and recounts the show more life of Fra Dolcino, a medieval heretic who announced the return of the Messiah and Sabbatai Zevi, a Renaissance cabalist who maintained that he himself was the Messiah. Somehow the answers may lie in the missing manuscript, 'The Book of The Coming', but the unsolved mysteries of both past and present, as well as the ever encroaching environmental anomalies, seem to be leading to an apocalypse... "The Coming is an explosive mixture on three levels: a hard-boiled investigation, the story of an impending global catastrophe, and the description of daily life in a small Balkan city. Imagine Dashiell Hammett meeting Umberto Eco, and both of them meeting Orhan Pamuk! If there is justice in the world, Nikolaidis' novel should become a bestseller bigger than the novels of James Patterson or John Grisham. And since there is no justice in the world, let us hope that a divine caprice will nonetheless make this insanely readable page-turner a mega success." Slavoj Z?iz?ek Andrej Nikolaidis is a contemporary writer from one of Europe's newest and smallest states: Montenegro. He is also a polemical journalist whose writing is fundamental to the process of democratic dialogue in the region. He has written three novels and was awarded the European Prize for Literature 2011 . This book is also available as a eBook. Buy it from Amazon here. show lessTags
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Member Recommendations
clfisha Only because it combines noir and apocalypse that a reader might enjoy this one also(plus its very good)
Member Reviews
Snow falls in Summer, a library burns and a gruesome murder takes place. A PI who keeps the clients satisfied with lies, is on the case but then his long lost insane son, starts helping from afar with tales of blasphemy and religion.
Its a rich, fulfilling and refreshingly different story. The medieval history of cults and false messiahs is fascinating itself yet weaves itself against unreliable unfurling of his sons life story. The detectives cynical thoughts ooze off the page, with environmental apocalypse and shocking case as his background.Backgrounds that add tensions and also a sense of unreality to the plot. No part overwhelms the other, everything only adds the whole and its amazing what has been achieved in this short (126 show more page) novella.
A word of warning though don't expect firm resolution, take the truth you want. There are no gripping car chases or complicated whodunnits, more a dreamy open ended inevitability that hits hard against its Noir roots. The mystery is the book itself. That it comes from Montenegro a different culture and view which I have never tried is just the sprinkles on the icing of this bite sized cake.
Highly recommended. A truly delicious mix and if you want something different and like Noir this is for you. show less
Its a rich, fulfilling and refreshingly different story. The medieval history of cults and false messiahs is fascinating itself yet weaves itself against unreliable unfurling of his sons life story. The detectives cynical thoughts ooze off the page, with environmental apocalypse and shocking case as his background.Backgrounds that add tensions and also a sense of unreality to the plot. No part overwhelms the other, everything only adds the whole and its amazing what has been achieved in this short (126 show more page) novella.
A word of warning though don't expect firm resolution, take the truth you want. There are no gripping car chases or complicated whodunnits, more a dreamy open ended inevitability that hits hard against its Noir roots. The mystery is the book itself. That it comes from Montenegro a different culture and view which I have never tried is just the sprinkles on the icing of this bite sized cake.
Highly recommended. A truly delicious mix and if you want something different and like Noir this is for you. show less
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- Canonical title
- The Coming
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction, Mystery
- DDC/MDS
- 891.83936 — Literature & rhetoric Literatures of other languages East Indo-European and Celtic literatures West and South Slavic languages (Bulgarian, Slovene, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Serbo-Croatian, and Macedonian) Croatian and other Shtokavian languages Bosnian Bosnian fiction
- LCC
- PS3568 .O233 .N556 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Individual authors 1961-
- BISAC
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- 22
- Popularity
- 1,190,334
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.57)
- Languages
- English, German, Mongolian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 3
