Page 6 - Vladimir Bartol catalogue, 2019

6Alamut English translation available(by Michael Biggins)“ Timeless, questions much of what we assume as fundamental ”original title: Alamutnovel440 pagesfirst published in 1938, present edition published in 2001no 1 bestseller — over 100,000 copies sold in Slovenia alonetranslated into over 30 languages, including English, French, German, Italian Spanish, Portuguese, Croatian, Serbian, Czech, Slovak, Bolgarian, Latvian, Hungarian, Turkish, Greek, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian.recently sold to: Noir sur blanc (Poland), Editora Morro Branco (Brasil), Koridor (Turkey) e best selling Slovenian novel ever, Alamut is a book about political and historical considerations of fanaticism as wellas a gripping adventure story based on the life and legendof the original “assassin” and world’s rst political terrorist, 11th century Ismaili leader Hasan ibn Sabbah. An oriental tapestry, rich with detail of the lives and rites of a lost world, Alamut is ultimately a re ection on all forms of despotism. In magni cent prose reminiscent of Flaubert’s Salammbô, Vladimir Bartol – an author and philosopher interested in the history of religions, especially Islam – unveils the secret inner workings of fundamentalism and terrorism as well as developing existentialist themes of freedom, power and the absurd. Literary historians regard Alamut as an encyclopaedia of philosophy, politics, psychoanalysis, and scienti c ideas, taking the form of an exotically decorated novel, posing questions on the boundary between truth and ction. Butin a world marked by 9/11, Alamut, exploring how forms of violence in history pre gure those of our own time, has also gained a more immediate signi cance.Goodreads.com: 4.30 · Rating details · 7,471 ratings · 696 reviews “Most interesting work of literature”“I had heard that this book was the sole inspiration for Assassin’s Creed, and I can clearly see why. To be able to have the images come to life as I read each word was better than the video game it inspired. I can see why it was powerful enough to inspire a video game series that has become an icon in modern gaming.”“More than historical ction, a great work of philosophy!”