Karnera

Karnera
Montenegro
milorad-popovic
Milorad Popović
I have instinctively closed my eyes, and when I looked again, the lady in green high heels was gone. According to a telling of the old guardians, when the heavens are upsetting and the strong winds are hitting, the upset souls will make a timid man plastered and enraged.

Milorad Popović was born on 2 February 1957 in Lipa Cucka, Cetinje.

He published the books of poetry: Sa trga glodara (1982), So Jude (1983), Nema više klađenja (1985), Red se polako zavodi (1987), Cetinjski ljetopis (1991), Nesigurna zemlja (2005) and Raskršća (2008); the novels Karnera (2012) and Čovjek bez lica (2016), and the books of essays Mali narod i nacionalizam (1997), Crnogorsko pitanje (1999), Podijeljena nacija (2010), Njegoš i crnogorska nacija (2011) and Njegoševo nasljeđe (2013). His poetry and essays have been translated into several languages.

He received numerous awards for literature, including the “Risto Ratković” Award for the best book of poetry in the Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian language (2005), ” Miroslavljevo Jevanđelje” for the best book published in Montenegro 2005-2008, the “Meša Selimović” Award for the best novel in the language area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and Serbia (2012) and the 13th July Award (2016).

He is the President of the Montenegrin Association of Independent Writers.

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 20th 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.