Rakov kanon

Rakov kanon

Paolo Maurensig

In the elegant London Dorchester Hotel, the new owner of a three-hundred-year-old Stainer violin will witness a gloomy story told to him by a writer whose desire was to write a novel in which the main character would be music.

This psychological and musical tale is structured like a musical canon, where themes are repeated and reversed, creating a layered narrative about identity, art, and destiny. The story begins in 1985 at the Dorchester Hotel in London, where the new owner of a three-hundred-year-old Stainer violin becomes the listener of an unusual story told to him by a writer obsessed with the idea of ​​writing a novel in which music is the main character.

Through this story, we meet two young musicians from Vienna in 1932: a Hungarian violinist and an Austrian aristocrat. Their connection is based on a shared passion for music, but also on complex relationships of friendship, jealousy, and competition. As their lives intertwine, secrets about their origins, family ties, and personal demons are revealed, culminating in tragic consequences.

The title of the novel refers to the musical form "crab canon," where the melody is played backwards, symbolizing the thematic reversal and reflection within the story. Maurensig uses this structure to explore how the past shapes the present and how art can be a source of both salvation and destruction.

Canon of the Crab is a deeply emotional novel that explores complex human emotions and relationships through musical metaphor, leaving the reader with questions about identity, legacy, and the power of art.

Original title
Canone inverso
Translation
Morana Čale
Editor
Sanja Pavić, Gordana Farkaš Sfeci
Graphics design
Palete design
Dimensions
22.5 x 14.5 cm
Pages
163
Publisher
Fidas, Zagreb, 2000.
 
Distribution: 1,000 copies
 
Latin alphabet. Paperback.
Language: Croatian.
ISBN
9-53-656111-5

No copies available

The last copy was sold recently.

 

Are you interested in another book? You can search the offer using our search engine or browse books by category.

You may also be interested in these titles

Melanholija 1-2

Melanholija 1-2

Jun Fose

Combining historical facts with fiction, the author draws us deep into the world of the artist's thin soul, whose vulnerability is caused by his tragic end, but who also possesses an incredible gift to see the divine beauty of the world where others would

Blum izdavaštvo, 1995.
Serbian. Latin alphabet. Paperback.
12.26
Saturnovi prstenovi

Saturnovi prstenovi

Vinfrid Georg Zebald

A dreamy book that dives into the best possible prose of the entire European literature of the 20th century.

Plato, 2006.
Serbian. Latin alphabet. Paperback.
9.64
Sasvim obične besmislice

Sasvim obične besmislice

Daniil Harms

Ignored and harassed by the authorities, surviving on the help of relatives and publishing children's rhymes, this ingenious marginal left behind a veritable treasure trove of strange stories and twisted thoughts in his notes and notebooks.

Šareni dućan, 1999.
Croatian. Latin alphabet. Paperback.
10.14
Ujed anđela

Ujed anđela

Pavel Krusanov

Before us is a sociopolitical novel with a complex anti-utopian vision, which with its mature, colorful, charismatic and striking characters, as well as the original composition, not without an ironic deviation, gives a fresco of an alternative developmen

Geopoetika, 2002.
Serbian. Latin alphabet. Paperback.
8.667.79
Koncert za tequilu i apaurin

Koncert za tequilu i apaurin

Edo Popović

A short novel by Edo Popović, one of the most important Croatian prose writers of the 1990s and 2000s. The book is part of Popović's "Zagreb Cycle" – a critique of transition without pathos, but through absurdity and grotesqueness.

Meandar, 2003.
Croatian. Latin alphabet. Paperback.
3.26
Stotina godina (antikronika)

Stotina godina (antikronika)

Dario Harjaček

The novel One Hundred Years by Dario Harjaček provides a panoramic view of Trešnjevka and its inhabitants through a century of changes, ideologies, and human destinies – a mosaic of Zagreb in which life, art, and history intertwine.

Oceanmore, 2025.
Croatian. Latin alphabet. Paperback.
13.42