Spas

Isidora Bjelica is one of Serbia’s most prominent authors, an ambitious creator of independent and insightful thinking and precisely expressed opinions, who has written a multitude of acclaimed books. Born in Sarajevo, she moved to Belgrade with her family after the “Nazi party” affair (which is also the subject of the just-translated book The Book of My Life by Aleksandar Hemon). After decades of a creative life full of ups and downs (the latter also caused by the prevention of the publication of columns and other topical texts), at the age of forty-six she was diagnosed with cancer. In Spas, her latest work, she dissects her life so far, her struggle with the disease and her search for its causes with shocking honesty. For Isidora Bjelica, taboo subjects do not exist and she talks, among other things, about her conversion to Orthodoxy twice, at the worst turning points in her life. A valuable reading is also the supplement to the memoirs, Praktikum, where he concisely gives basic (very useful) instructions for healing the soul and the body. (VVŠ)