The Houses of Belgrade

The Houses of Belgrade, first published in 1970, draws a parallel between the unrest culminating in the Belgrade student riots of 1968 and that at two earlier points in the history of Yugoslavia: the riots which preceded Germany's 1941 attack on Belgrade and the turmoil of Serbia's entry into WWI. Pekic relates his tale through Negovan, one of Belgrade's prime builders of houses, and through the metaphor of the gradual decline of the builder's mind presents a compelling look at the fear of loss and destruction in a chronically disrupted society.