In the novel Night-Time Showing, the reconstruction of a person’s earlier life in a city and the search for reliable facts about that life turns, step by step, into a narration about origins, about family, about fate and about the confrontation of individual actors in the face of historical givens; likewise, it becomes a sort of family genealogy, while being also an onerous story about growing up, about otherness and differentness, about concealed family stories and secrets, and also a sort of sociological and historical guide to anticipations of Novi Sad, its destiny, its rises and falls. Succeeding to reconstruct an epoch from the shards of objects, like an inspired archeologist, Oto Horvat suggestively and convincingly, under the dimmed lighting of prose, reconstructs the personal and private life of the protagonist of Night-Time Showing, and also the private life of the city. - Franja Petrinović
Oto Horvat was born in 1967 in Novi Sad. He finished high school in Sremski Karlovci. He studied in Novi Sad, Erlangen and Berlin. He lives and works in Florence. Published books of poetry: Where the Forest Disappears (1987, “Branko Award”), Bitter Leaves (1990), Coagulation (1990), Photos (1996), Residence Permit (2002), Travel to Olmo (2008, “Miroslav Antić” Award), Selected & New Poems (2009 ); novel: Szabo Stopped (2014, “Biljana Jovanović” Award, “Mirko Kovač” Award and the shortlist for the NIN Award); collection of stories: As Celan’s Lovers (2016; Karolj Sirmai Award). Translations: Janoš Pilinski, Crater (1992, Vojvodina Writers’ Association Award for Translation of the Year); Otto Fenyvesi, Angel of Chaos (2009); Hans Magnus Enzensberger, The Last Salutation to Astronauts (2010).
