Stories from around the world

True immigrant stories told by people hailing from different nations and continents, whose narration in prose renders the world more captivating than in real life.

Verging on the anecdotal, sometimes facing the abyss of existence, Pištalo’s characters reveal their intimate stories which stir blood. Each of them addresses the most pertinent points of their individual sentimentality. Behind each personal history, behind each set of events, a revelation emerges to connect them all. The meaning arises from the experienced, which represents the most fundamental layer of reality. In the broadest sense, through the lens of American life, the reader encounters distinct mental interiors transplanted from around the world. Influenced by their distinct cultural backgrounds, the characters view the world differently. All the diverse observations and attitudes presented in this unique literary-geographical atlas still converge within the confines of the American mentality. The multicultural thematic richness which accompanies a perpetual hovering of the human soul trapped in solitude, often revealed through egocentric persons and their ethnocentric attitudes, is reduced to irony.

– Nenad Šaponja, Politika

In his collection Stories From Around The World, Pištalo travels across the globe, from Nigeria to China, from Belgrade to Las Vegas. Archived in peoples’ memories, sometimes decisively shaping their interactions, the war is still present, but it is no longer central. With a full awareness that “everything happens everywhere,” Pištalo surveys an astounding pool of characters from all over the world, never shying away from cynicism. It seems that the period of mourning over nothingness has ended, and that the realization that mourning is futile and despair senseless has set in—hence it’s better to laugh, even with bitterness. Pištalo learned his craft in the Balkans, which he detailed in his story “Mostar” (The Stained Glass Window From Memory, 1994). “Just as life here gathers itself into paradise, the wind disperses it. Only stories about life survive the trickery of history, and always appear of greater value than anything else boasting permanence in the Balkans.“ Therefore, let’s talk about life along all meridians!

– Dragana Besara, Reč