One Minute - Around the World in 60 Seconds / Illustration: Valentina Brostean
The book entitled One Minute – Around the World in 60 Seconds, written by acclaimed Serbian author Vladimir Arsenijević and illustrated by Valentina Broštean, consists of 25 fragments/stories set within one single minute of time (January 20, 2010, from 12:00 to 12:01 GMT) at 25 different spots on planet Earth such as Samoa, Hawaii, Brazil, Portugal, Kosovo, Kurdistan, Burma, Australia or Russia.
By peeping into fragments of randomly chosen lives and moments at all those different places in the world, it eavesdrops and echoes this unique hum of mankind, carrying its readers to a great journey over Meridians and Time.
Beautifully illustrated and designed, the book represents a kind of a hymn dedicated as much to the human race as to its one and only home – planet Earth. But what it actually celebrates are people – common, ordinary people of all continents and cultures, caught in one singular minute in Time, with all their respective virtues and failings, all their differences and similarities, as randomly chosen actors of this virtually unique collective portrait of our global daily life.
The book was originally published in Serbian last fall by SKC Novi Sad, but so far had little exposure in local media, despite the breathtaking surreal images by Brostean and the fact that Arsenijevic is an established Eastern European author. Balkan people may be lazy to read (even when it comes to illustrated books) or just unreceptive for doing things outside of the box, so we’re hoping for a English translation sometime soon. Stay tuned.
