Till Kingdom Come
SynopsisPlot
Till Kingdom Come centers on a cynical journalist in Ulcinj, Montenegro, who discovers that the grandmother who raised him isn’t related by blood—and that his mother may have been a covert operative linked to Yugoslav intelligence. As seemingly supernatural episodes transport him into other lives and cities, he sets off on a surreal investigation into his origins, uncovering falsified histories, conspiracies, and wartime atrocities. Nikolaidis blends detective mystery with existential dread, dark humor, regional history, and metafictional elements to challenge perceptions of identity and truth. Ultimately, the novel becomes a meditation on memory, trauma, and the unreliability of inherited stories.
Story
About this book
Till Kingdom Come follows a journalist living in Ulcinj, a coastal town in southern Montenegro, whose understanding of his own life fractures when he learns that the grandmother who raised him has no biological connection to him. Worse, evidence surfaces suggesting his mother may have operated as a covert agent tied to Yugoslav intelligence services. What begins as a personal crisis quickly turns into something stranger, as the narrator experiences episodes that seem to pull him into other lives and other cities entirely.
His search for the truth behind his origins leads through falsified records, conspiracies, and traces of wartime violence in the region. Andrej Nikolaidis layers detective-story mechanics over existential uncertainty, folding in dark humor and metafictional turns that keep the ground shifting beneath both narrator and reader. The novel treats identity not as something fixed but as something assembled from inherited stories, many of which may be unreliable or deliberately constructed. Questions about memory, trauma, and the gap between official history and personal experience run through the narrative, set against the specific landscape and layered past of Montenegro and the wider former Yugoslavia.
