Serbian / Serbia
Ja sam Akiko
(I am Akiko)
Tićmi, Stefan
(text)
Beograd: Laguna, 2018. – 95 p.
ISBN 978-86-521-2956-0
Identity | Impression | Atmosphere
Reading age: 8+
White Ravens issue: 2019
With “Ja sam Akiko”, Stefan Tićmi (b. 1992) presents a narrative text that is highly poetic and whose words flow ever so smoothly. Akiko the protagonist repeatedly introduces herself, like a refrain, as if she were reassuring herself of her own existence: “I am Akiko”. She explains what makes her her (skin that smells like old paper), what she likes (her heart on four points – her bicycle) and what she doesn’t like (certain words). Akiko talks with wet towels, which answer with their drops; with the Baobab tree; and with her father, who often sleeps poorly at night, has nightmares, and who loves his daughter very much. What exactly is occurring in Akiko’s life and family remains unclear, but that isn’t irritating at all. For the many little impressions coalesce to create a wonderfully impressionistic atmosphere, which mirrors back the whole warmth, beauty, and melancholy of Akiko’s world – no matter what that world is like in reality.