Novel
The Red Cock Flies to Heaven
Црвени петао лети према небу
Miodrag Bulatović · 1959
Synopsis
A village in Montenegro, on a wedding day. Around the kolo that spins endlessly, people fight in front of the crowd that takes sides, drink, quarrel over the girls and the leftovers, and each drags along his misery, his shame or his hunger. Among these grotesque figures, a man and his red rooster come and go in a world where love turns to violence, where goodness no longer has any meaning and where laughter is black.
Context
The book disconcerted the critics less by what it said about power than by a language judged to be without quality, by a sexuality until then passed over in silence and by the dark picture it painted of its village. The NIN prize was awarded to no one that year: proposed by Zoran Mišić, the novel was rejected by other members of the jury, and the 1975 prize has since been seen as a reparation. English translations appeared as early as 1962 in London and New York.
Who it is for
About two hundred and fifty pages in which several destinies cross, in a raw language. One must accept that nothing is explained, which is intentional.
Prizes and reception
The novel that made its author world-famous, regarded as his best and translated into more than twenty languages.