At the Lucky Hand
The novel At the Lucky Hand offers numerous motifs, perspectives, and plots, parallel worlds, interweaving of time, heroes, and fates. The historical backdrop of the novel depicts the scene of Belgrade from the royal assassination of 1903, through the 1940’s and the period of the repressive communist regime. It presents a story about storytelling, where the theme of literature became literature itself.
Goran Petrović (1961–2024) was a Serbian writer and academic, regarded as one of the most important and widely read contemporary Serbian prose authors. He primarily wrote short stories and novels.
He published the short prose collection Advice for an Easier Life (1989); the novels Atlas Described by the Sky (1993), The Siege of the Church of the Holy Savior (1997), At the Lucky Hand (2000); the short story collection The Nearest Ones (2002); and the selected short prose volume All I Know About Time (2003). His novels Paper and Iconostasis from the Novel Delta series were published in 2022, and The Palace in 2024.
Among his most notable awards are: the Prosveta Award, the Meša Selimović Award, the NIN Award for Novel of the Year, the Vitala Award, the Rača Charter, the National Library of Serbia Award for the Most-Read Book of the Year, the Ivo Andrić Award for a short story, the Grand Ivo Andrić Award for lifetime achievement, and the Vladan Desnica Award of the National Library of Serbia.