A MODEL OF GENIUS: THE POLISH CASE
By Ilija Šaula
There exists within European literature a quiet paradox: the closer a nation has come to disappearance, the closer its language has come to eternity. It is within this paradox that Polish poetry is formed—not as an aesthetic choice, but as an ontological necessity.
From Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Słowacki, to Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska, the poet in Poland has never been merely an individual. He or she has been a point of intersection—where history and conscience, language and silence, suffering and meaning converge. It is within this crossing that what we call genius emerges, though at its core it is a product of pressure.
THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THE UNINITIATED
By Ljubica Zikic
Translated by Ilija Šaula with assistance from Copilot
The contemporary American writer Irvin D. Yalom has written novels inspired by the lives of well‑known philosophers (Nietzsche, Spinoza, Schopenhauer), so his books naturally carry a philosophical tone. I read When Nietzsche Wept, The Spinoza Problem, and The Schopenhauer Cure with great pleasure, because as I read, I kept recognizing attitudes toward life that I myself hold, to a greater or lesser degree. From experience, I’ve concluded that we tend to love writers whose views resemble our own — and there is nothing wrong with that.
In The Schopenhauer Cure, in Chapter 13, Yalom writes: “When, at the end of life, most people look back, they discover that they have lived entirely provisionally. They are startled to realize that what they allowed to pass unnoticed and without enjoyment was, in fact, their life. And so, a person, deceived by hope, dances straight into the arms of death.”
The Book as a Site of Expansion and Metamorphosis of Reality
By Milena Blagojevic
The book stands as one of the most beautiful and precious monuments in the history of humankind, reaching back to the dawn of literacy. Rooted in the word—the embodiment of language, or logos, which lies at the core of the world’s creation—it transcends both time and matter. Language surpasses the world and man alike, dwelling in an eternal present, while the world exists within time, in a state of continuous change. Yet it is through the elements of language that the world becomes describable.
The book stands as one of the most beautiful and precious monuments in the history of humankind, reaching back to the dawn of literacy. Rooted in the word—the embodiment of language, or logos, ...
The Final Departure: Julian Barnes and the Architecture of the Last Word
By Ilija Šaula
Lately, the name Julian Barnes has been surfacing in the media with unusual frequency, sparking a mix of celebration and quiet concern. This sudden surge in attention—marking his 80th birthday and the release of what he calls his final book—caught my attention and prompted a deeper reflection. Having long admired the precision of his prose, particularly in The Sense of an Ending, ...
“A SHORT THEORY OF EVERYTHING” – A PROVOCATION AND A SHIFT
(*Saša Radonjić – A Short Theory of Everything (novel, SF anti‑adventure) – SOLARIS, Novi Sad, 2025)
By Ilija Šaula
There are books you read, books you interpret, and books that happen to you. A Short Theory of Everything by Saša Radonjić belongs to this third category. It is not merely a novel, but a process — a space in which the author, the character, the reader, and the residue between them ...
A House That Is a Home
(Aleksandra Đorđević: At the Edge of the World, a House “Književni esnaf” – series Word and Meaning, Belgrade, 2025)
By Željka Avrić
After three published novels and a book of poetry, the writer, essayist, and translator Aleksandra Đorđević returns to her readers with a collection of short prose, At the Edge of the World, a House. Fourteen short stories, fourteen different thematic and motivational choices, settings and temporal frameworks, atmospheres, characters, and their interrelations ...
