For decades active as a poet, writer and intellectual engaged on the literary scene, Milorad Popović imposed himself with a debut prose, the novel Karnera, as the authoritative voice of contemporary Montenegrin prose. Although the title and the introductory chapters of the novel refer to the world of boxing, Karnera is thematically, least of all, a novel about boxing. Therefore, the story of a local boxer Trifun Tripković, who was cast away by life to the margin, is located on the margins of the text. Between the story about the Trifun’s origin and an early age, told in the third person in the first four chapters of the novel, and the news of his death in the epilogue, the narrator of the Karnera, a former boxer and the croupier, Mato Tujovćc, recounts a cross section of his own turbulent life experiences from the end of 1980s to the renewal of Montenegrin independence, returning occasionally to some of the crucial historical events of the 20^th century. As much as a novel about outcasts and a destiny of a country, Karnera is the first novel with Cetinje, with his mighty mythical potential, in the very centre of the story.