Belgrade, October 31st 2012 – PE “Belgrade Fortress” as part of the project “Tales of Belgrade” will host a writer Mirjana Novaković who will present her novel “Fear and his servant”. The presentation of the book will be held on November 2nd 2012 7pm at Nebojša Tower and Dr Ljiljana Pešikan Ljuštanović will talk about the book alongside the author.

The novel is set at the beginning of the 18th century when Count von Habsburg arrives in Belgrade under Austrian rule, seduces the Princess, spies on her husband the Regent and secretly inquires about vampires that have appeared around the town. However, the princess is not so innocent, The Regent has something to hide, vampires are really rampaging Serbia and Count von Habsburg is actually the devil himself. Lucifer will tell his story and many years later, Princess Marie Auguste of Thurn and Taxis will have to tell her story during an investigation, but it is obvious that their versions are completely different. Who is lying: the devil or the Princess? Or are the lying both?

“Fear and his servant”, a hybrid genre in which history, fantasy, horror and politics intertwine, is a kind of allegory of Serbian political scene. Critics assessed the novel positively and recognized a very original writer in Mirjana Novaković.
“Blending historical and mythical, real and fantastic, the author that designates her novel as a “political horror”, has created a work of high intertextuality which breaks away from any exact genre defining” said Đorđe Bajić.

The novel “Fear and his servant” was awarded with the Literary prize “Isidora Sekulić” in 1999 and has been shortlisted for the NIN Award in 2000.

Mirjana Novaković was born in 1966 and had her literary debut in 1996 with the collection of “The Danube Apocrypha”. She has received literary awards “Isidora Sekulić” for her novel “Fear and his servant” and the award “Lazar Komarčić” for the novel ” Johann`s 501″ for the best fantasy novel. Her last novel “Tito has died” was published in 2011. All three novels were shortlisted for the NIN Award.

Until the end of the year and within the project “Tales of Belgrade” books “The excessive use of force” by Vida Crnčević Basara, “Claws 2” by Marko Radojković will be presented and an evening dedicated to the Secrets of Belgrade will be organized along with the presentation of following books “Belgrade under Belgrade”, “Masonic symbols of Belgrade” and “City of secrets” by Zoran Nikolić.