The Inner Side of the Wind. A Novel about Hero and Leander

Milorad Pavić is a notable Serbian writer whose works intertwine magical realism with hypertextuality, allowing the reader to determine the plot of the novel and influence the storyline. "The Inner Side of the Wind" resembles a water clock (clepsydra) in... its form. It is a flip book that can be started from either end. Hero and Leander are separated by centuries, yet they feel—or, rather, foresee—each other across the ages. Thin threads stretch between them through the fabric of time, which the reader can try to find and weave together. Leander lives during the time of Turkish invasions. To learn his fate, he consults prophets who predict two deaths for him: by saber and by fire. These prophecies are the inner and outer sides of the wind… Hero knows that she will die at 12:05. Meanwhile, she teaches French to two children, one of whom lives in the future and is not visible in the present, and translates novels, inserting her own stories into them…