Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Dictionary of Khazars (Vintage International)
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Dictionary of Khazars (Vintage International) (Paperback)

by Pavic (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


16 used from £1.39
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover Order it used
Paperback (Vintage International ed Male ed) 19 used & new from £0.83

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Landscape Painted With Tea

Landscape Painted With Tea

by Milorad Pavic
Last Love in Constantinople

Last Love in Constantinople

by Milorad Pavic
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £15.15
The Bridge Over the Drina

The Bridge Over the Drina

by Ivo Andric
4.6 out of 5 stars (10)  £8.37
Life: A User's Manual

Life: A User's Manual

by Georges Perec
4.0 out of 5 stars (7)  £6.74
A Void

A Void

by Georges Perec
5.0 out of 5 stars (5)  £5.83
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage Books; 1st Vintage International Ed., Female Ed edition (1 Nov 1996)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 067972754X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0679727545
  • Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 12.2 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 492,195 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Review

"All its delights...the structural novelty and the comic inventiveness of the imagery...[are] an ebullient and generous celebration of the reading experience."
-- The New York Times Book Review
"As with Borges or Garcia Marquez...[Pavic] knows how to support his textual legerdemain with superb portrait miniatures and entrancing anecdotes." -- Washington Post Book World
Translated from the Serbo-Croatian
by Christina Pribicevic-Zoric

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
See all 14 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Dictionary of Khazars (Vintage International)
96% buy the item featured on this page:
Dictionary of Khazars (Vintage International) 4.0 out of 5 stars (7)
The Thirteenth Tribe: The Khazar Empire and Its Heritage
3% buy
The Thirteenth Tribe: The Khazar Empire and Its Heritage 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£7.12
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The novel NOT as we know it, 29 April 2004
By D. C. Njoku (Bracknell, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Dictionary of the Khazars: Male Version : A Lexicon Novel (Hardcover)
I'm willing to bet my paycheck that you haven't read anything remotelylike "The Dictionary...". I know I hadn't. For one it is structured likea dictionary - or, perhaps more accurately, an encyclopaedia. The joy ofthis is that you can open the book at any page and read any entry at all(though I must recommend that you read the introduction before you dothis) and you'll be reading an entertaining 'storylet', which makes uppart of the overall story.
But M Pavic added an additional layer (or rather 3) of complexity to thisstructure: you see, this book is not one dictionary but three - aChristian, a Hebrew and a Muslim version. Each 'book' recounts the taleof the conversion of the Khazars, but approaches the story from theirdifferent viewpoint.
And this adds to the beauty of this book: You can read it 'diagonally' -i.e. read about a person or event (say Princess Ateh) in the Christianversion, then go to the Hebrew and see what they say about her, and thenon to the Muslim. The same story is often slanted subtly in each version- it's very engaging and very clever.
But this book is not just about gimmicks (because, face it, that's allthis dictionary structure really is). Pavic is a very good writer andevery sentence is sculpted, not a word is out of place. And with theKhazars he has (re)constructed a complete world. And it's a world I'mglad I visited.
One final word of warning: This is no holiday book, an easy airportlounge book. It is serious and dense and you have to wrestle its juicefrom it. The author is perhaps half-serious when he warns in theintroduction that readers have died or gone mad from attempting thisbook.
Still reading? Good. If I haven't scared you off, welcome to the worldof the Khazars. Enjoy.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating reading, 21 Nov 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Dictionary of the Khazars (International Writers) (Paperback)
This book grabbed my attention from the dedication on the frontispiece: "Here lies the reader who will never open this book. He is here forever dead." The book consists of three books, or three dictionaries, each telling the story of the imaginary people the Khazars from three points of view: Christian, Moslem or Jewish. Reading entries about the same characters in each book I've been jumping back and forwards from page to page. I love reading this way, its like reading a hypertext only you have total control of where you go and what you read about. The language is beautiful (the translation from Serbo-Croatian is either excellent or creative) and the joy in the story-telling spills over into the several versions of each event and each person described. Absolutely a book I'd recommend, though the advice in the introduction is probably quite good:

"The author advises the reader not to tackle this book unless he absolutely has to. And if he does touch it, let it be on days when he feels that his mind and sense of caution probe deeper than usual, and let him read it the way he catches "leap fever", an illness that skips over every other day and strikes only on feminine days of the week."

Oh, and take note: there's a male version of the book and a female version of the book...

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Best book I have ever read, 23 Feb 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Dictionary of the Khazars (International Writers) (Paperback)
For those who like slow reading, for those who like thinking while reading, for those who like not-so-straightforward lines... This is the best book that has ever been written
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Black is Black I want my baby back
Read it! Cambridge To Baghdad via Algeria and March. It's all in there. This book will take you anywhere. Have a dream. It WILL be caught on the airwaves.
Published on 23 Dec 2003 by Julie A Deloughery

5.0 out of 5 stars Silver Shadows Nuclear Technology - Flora and Forna
I found the ultimate crucifiction within these pages. It was like Cambridge to Baghdad. A total toy in ship shape living the final fantasy. Read it. The Bible is no match! Read more
Published on 23 Dec 2003 by Julie A Deloughery

4.0 out of 5 stars An Intellectual Curio
A very strange book, it comes in the form of a dictionary. The plot is, therefore, almost random access. You cross refer through to develop the story. Read more
Published on 27 May 2002 by hypocrite_lecteur

4.0 out of 5 stars this world and another merge seemlessly
I first read this thinking it was a non fiction historical book. Knowing some of the history of the Balkans, it was a bit factual then a bit.. well, odd. Read more
Published on 18 May 2000

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject












i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.