Novel
Dictionary of the Khazars
Хазарски речник
Milorad Pavić · 1984
Synopsis
A dictionary in three books about a vanished people, one Christian, one Muslim, one Jewish, each giving its own version of the same affair: a ruler who summoned three theologians to choose a religion, and whose empire then faded without leaving a trace. The three versions contradict one another. One enters by whichever entry one likes, and nothing obliges one to follow alphabetical order.
Context
The book appeared in Belgrade in 1984, from Prosveta, subtitled a lexicon novel in 100,000 words, and in two copies, one male and one female, which the author said differed like two ways of living time. It received the NIN Prize the same year. Translations began as early as 1985 in Slovenian, then in Hungarian and Slovak; the French and English editions followed in 1988. It has been hailed as the first novel of the twenty-first century.
Who it is for
A novel in the form of a dictionary, to be read in whatever order one likes: no entry is a required starting point. It is worth knowing that the Khazars really existed, between the Caspian and the Black Sea.
Prizes and reception
NIN Prize 1984, translated into more than thirty-five languages, it is the most translated book in Serbian literature.