Zo-om
is a literary exploration along a metaphorical, fractured border-line, weaving
together punctuation-like symbols and an anxiety-laden emptiness. It probes the
fluid, silence-charged boundary between animal and human. The human side
crosses this boundary often via deliberate – or sometimes unavoidable –
silence. The animal side communicates through "speech without words".
The narrative unfolds in seven interconnected parts, titled: Short Eastory (An author-crafted word), Cage, Clean, Borrowed voices, The
heritage, l.o.l., More hidden than Literature. These parts collectively span not only Albanian,
Balkan and European contexts but also broader universal sensibilities and
mentalities. The author constructs the concept of “Zo-om” – layered term
evoking: Zoo(logy), Zo-om* (with ”om” meaning “human” in Romanian), Zoom (as in
“magnification” in English). It's a creative weaving of linguistic and semiotic
meanings, characteristic of Kyçyku’s stylistic innovation. ”Zo-om” stands out
as a philosophical and poetic narrative, rich in semiotic layers and linguistic
play, emblematic of Kyçyku’s broader oeuvre – marked by cultural reflection,
bilingual expression, and experimental form.
Insert: „Over forty years passed like a whistle, but
one of those whistles from people who no longer have all their teeth. They left
me no change, and so I believe they didn’t even owe me any. But I didn’t let
them off either. Irrefutable evidence were the teeth that had fallen out during
that whistle. In their place, I now bore tightly screwed-in teeth and molars of
questionable composition and origin — likely from the bones of mammals or
reptiles that don’t whistle and, at most, might growl. I hadn’t been able to
whistle for a long time, but that neither kept me young nor stopped aging.
We had stopped – my father and I – in front of the building where I had been killed.” (…)
This is a captivating book – layered with clues, appearances, signals, symbols, and symptoms; in short: signs. It is traversed by a finely chiseled style, enriched with subtle humor woven into the characters’ dialogues – at times grotesque, at times absurd. With characters ranging from theater actors to gravediggers, it invites the reader to engage the mind’s zoom lens, to activate the imagination in order to fully grasp its intricate depths. Kyçyku, a master craftsman of both the Albanian and Romanian languages (writing with equal ease in each), expresses free and lucid thought with remarkable conciseness. His works embody the principle of “few words, many meanings. (…) He stands as one of the most powerful voices in contemporary Albanian and Romanian literature. [Dr. Viktor Bakillari, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Tirana, published in Jeta e Re, Prishtina 2024]
A short presentation of book in YT by Top Albanian Radio
A short presentation
realised by the author
* Shortlisted National Prize for Novel,