Reserveleben

A Spare Life (Reseveleben) is a harrowing story about the fate of conjoined twin girls with adjoined heads and telling names – Zlata and Srebra (Gold and Silver). It is also about their struggle for individuality, privacy and separate lives. Their personal drama takes place between 1984 and 2012 and spans between Skopje and London, while also including events that are not only part of personal but also about collective memory and history. The story told by Zlata begins one June afternoon in 1984 on the outskirts of Skopje, where it also ends, in August 2012. The main characters play a game of prophecy with a friend: who will they marry? where and when? how many children will they have? will their husband will be poor? rich? even a billionaire? At the beginning of the novel, Srebra and Zlata play the game; at the end, Zlata’s daughters Marta and Marija play it. Things come full circle – 28 years of life, growing up, suffering, love and hatred. The separation of the twins coincides with the separation of the former Yugoslav republics. A Spare Life is a novel about love, history, politics, the times we live in, and about people we can identify with.