U sjeni fantoma

Ivan Lovrenović's novel In the shadow of the phantom is a precious literary work, an impressive example of writing skill and intellectual ethics. It can be read as the author's confession in which he describes the world of intimate memories and traumas, as a memoir dedicated to a family tragedy, as a historical novel that encompasses the time period of an entire century, a century marked by conflicts of ideologies and wars in which millions of people lost their lives. Finally, but not least, this novel can also be understood as a tribute to all the people whom the grindstone of history has crushed, made them disappear and invisible, but even more so to their family members who had to face a double pain: on the one hand with immense longing for the disappearance of loved ones, and on the other with social stigmatization and marginalization. Lovrenović is a superb master of the pen when it comes to writing lively, but also essayistic, journalistic and travel texts.