Summary
Marina Šur Puhlovski: Virus, earthquake, marriage
Marina Šur Puhlovski's new novel Virus, earthquake, marriage continues the series of novels about Sofija Kralj (Insomnia, Love, Player, Wild Ear, Goodbye Girl), with the main theme of this novel being her marriage to the hero of Player, i.e. 45 years of that marriage. It was in decline for most of that time, but still held on for almost half a century, because the "institution" is tough, as the heroine says at one point. The beginning takes us back to the year 1976, when the heroes meet, and then follows the development of that relationship in detail, partly in the ich-form, partly in the third person singular, because the heroine also sees herself as a character. Thus, the novel, although very lively, full of events, is at the same time a great essay about almost half a century of life in Zagreb, including the end of Yugoslavia, war and post-war times, up to our days. The main heroine is a writer, an intellectual, like most of the other characters in the novel, so it is a love, family, social, and philosophical novel, which penetrates into numerous phenomena of life, in a constant effort to find a reason and meaning for them. Masterfully written, complex, insightful, and yet fast and easy to read, the novel Virus, earthquake, marriage is the first book of the planned large novel fresco, in which Marina Šur Puhlovski in 900 pages (in three books), following the intimate life of Sofija Kralj, gives a comprehensive view of a time and society, as well as all the complexity, importance and fragility of our intimate relationships to which we are so convulsively attached and on which we build our lives.
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