ZAGREB, Jan 29 (Hina) - Ranko Marinkovic, one of the greatest Croatian novelists of the past 50 years, passed away at Zagreb's Sisters of Mercy hospital around six p.m. on Sunday.
ZAGREB, Jan 29 (Hina) - Ranko Marinkovic, one of the greatest
Croatian novelists of the past 50 years, passed away at Zagreb's
Sisters of Mercy hospital around six p.m. on Sunday.#L#
The Voltaire of Vis, an island in the southern Adriatic, was born on
22 February 1913. He was the recipient of several literary awards,
among them the Vjesnik daily's Ivan Goran Kovacic Literary Award
for two novels, "Kiklop" and "Never more."
Marinkovic appeared on the Croatian literary scene before World War
Two, when his first play, "Albatros", was performed at Zagreb's
Croatian National Theatre.
Marinkovic published several collections of short stories, plays,
and novels. His biggest successes were "Ponizenje Sokrata" and
"Ruke", two collections of short stories, the play "Gloria", and
the novel "Kiklop", regarded as one of the best Croatian novels of
the last century. It addresses man's desolation in the modern
world, portrayed through intellectuals and pseudo-intellectuals
in the Zagreb area on the eve of the Second World War. "Kiklop" was
adapted for both television and film.
Marinkovic's works have been translated into many languages.
"A rich realist, an inventive, ruthless analyst, tinged with the
fantastic, a sharp-witted, acerbic satirist, an ethereal lyric
poet" is how another Croatian 20th century literary great, Ivan
Goran Kovacic, once described Marinkovic.
(hina) ha