Zoran Živković

Zoran Živković was born in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia, in 1948. In 1973 he graduated from the Department of General Literature with the theory of literature, Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade; he received his master's degree in 1979 and his doctorate in 1982 from the same school, where he is currently a professor of creative writing.

Živković is the author of the eighteen works of fiction: The Fourth Circle (1993), Time Gifts (1997), The Writer (1998), The Book (1999), Impossible Encounters (2000), Seven Touches of Music (2001), The Library (2002), Steps through the Mist (2003), Hidden Camera (2003), Compartments (2004), Four Stories till the End (2004), Twelve Collections and the Teashop (2005), The Bridge (2006), Miss Tamara, The Reader (2006), Amarcord (2007), The Last Book (2007), Escher's Loops (2008), The Ghostwriter (2009) and The Wonders of the Danube (2011)

He lives in Belgrade, Serbia, with his wife Mia, their twin sons Uroš and Andreja, and their three cats.

• HC: DuMont 2011


• Movie & TV: Rights free (AVA international)

The Last Book

A series of mysterious deaths in the Papyrus Bookstore brings literature-loving police inspector Dejan Lukic to investigate. Here he meets the attractive owner, Vera Gavrilovic, and learns that the only thing the victims have in common is that in the moments before their deaths they were reading an elusive and unidentified volume — The Last Book. As the plot thickens and the seemingly causeless deaths multiply, the National Security Agency, a secret apocalyptic sect and an exotic teashop become involved, while Dejan and Vera’s growing attachment is threatened by nightmares and ever-encroaching danger. Is a literary madman on the loose, murdering readers according to the method laid down in The Name of the Rose? In a final race against time, Inspector Lukic must discover the secret of The Last Book and the reason why he feels as though he has already read everything that is happening to him in a novel. The extraordinary denouement reveals hidden truths about the clash of realities and the awesome power of the creative imagination.

• PB: Novosti (Serbia)


• PB: dtv 2008


• Izvori (Croatia), UK (PS Publishing), Korea (Eyes and Heart Press), Serbian and English (Zavod), Italy (TEA), The Netherlands (The Flying Dutchman), Slovenia (Blodnjak), Brazil (Editora Octavo Ltda), Portugal (Cavalo de Ferro)

Hidden Camera

"I found the envelope wedged in the front door..." With these words begins a series of surreal adventures for a correct, sensitive and morbidly self-conscious undertaker. Drawn hither and thither across the city by the lure of the hidden camera, he finds himself caught up in an ever more perplexing and anguished pursuit, leading to a denouement both beautiful and satisfying. By turns sinister and comic, slapstick and profound, Hidden Camera raises questions about the nature of self-awareness, freedom and surveillance, as well as eternal themes of love and death.

»A short, meaty book, this is an antimodernist parable heavy enough for you to know you've absorbed real substance, yet ironic enough to ensure you don't want to kill yourself when it's over.« The Guardian, UK

»Hidden Camera is a work of unexpected beauty and surprise. [...] Zivkovic is seeking to communicate something about the nature of life and death, of existence and non-existence, which bends perception into new and challenging shapes.« Strange Horizons, USA

• PB: 2004 Publishing Atelier Polaris, Serbia


• PB: dtv 2007


• Movie rights optioned to Studio Šijan


• Sold to: USA (Dalkey Archive Press), Spain (451 Editores), Serbia(Laguna)


• Nominated for International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2007