novel

Gvb – acquiring beauty in pure randomness

Novel

A hilarious philosophical comedy about morality and aunts, telling the story of Danica, who finds meaning in randomness and then must choose between her own happiness and the fate of the world.

What will you choose, Danica?!?!

Editor Kruno Lokotar
Publisher Fraktura, Zagreb, 2026.

Reviews

1/1

Moderna Vremena review

Gvb – acquiring beauty in pure randomness

It is precisely the fluidity, the polysemy and the saturation with references that make Želimir Periš's language — in tandem, of course, with a surprisingly simple execution — too complex for us to file this novel, as his meticulously planned product, under some ephemeral category (all the more so because we usually don't treat certain objectively weaker titles as such, since, well, they are not of a "ludic" but of a "deadly serious" nature).

(…)

In terms of genre — although, I believe, this hardly needs stressing — Periš's "Gvb" is a hybrid that, among other things, contains elements of the thriller, the romance, adventure and science fiction (to a lesser extent we might also speak, for instance, of a psychological novel).

(…)

With a little luck and a lot of persistence, Periš's new novel could be the beginning of an excellent series, though even without any announced sequel we can, with full justification, consider it a literarily exciting moment.

Franjo Nagulov
August 24, 2026

“Chance Realization” song

Lyrics & arrangement: Nora Kostelnik Pogačnik
Performed by: Tekila-la-la band (Nora Kostelnik Pogačnik and Denis Nisde Špičić)

Chance realization
Beauty is nothing but chance realization
And love outweighs the whole world's jubilation
Danica Špiro, auntie Ema
So gvb's our leading theme-a
Chance realization

Nobody knew how the story would end (gvb, gvb)
Would it save the world or its own downfall send (a ha)
Down in Little Cove the plot starts to bend (a ha)
Read on, 'cause the ending will keep you on end (new words)

Uuuuuhj, kvooof and gvb are coinages spun from the mind

In the Media

1/2

Screenshot of the article about the novel Gvb in Jutarnji list

'It all started with Danica, a woman so bored at work that in despair she bangs her head on the keyboard'

Tanja Tolić / Jutarnji List

The author of the now cult and reader-beloved "The Bony-Legged Bride" — which won the Tportal award for novel of the year, the Kočić's Quill for high achievement in contemporary literature, and the Best Foreign Novel Prize at the Les Imaginales festival in Épinal — has recently published, with Fraktura, a novel with an unusual title, "Gvb – acquiring beauty in pure randomness". The main character is once again a woman, the frustrated Italian-studies scholar Danica, and in this love-satire, brimming with linguistic playfulness, Japanese scientists deep in the Earth's crust discover a revolutionary find connected to the nursery rhymes of Danica's old aunt. A hilarious and bizarre adventure follows (…)

Screenshot of the article about the novel Gvb on tportal

On anxiety and a world going to hell: 'They earn billions, yet morally they're rock bottom'

Gea Vlahović / tportal

The author of "The Bony-Legged Bride" has just written the first novel of his new series, in which he deals with the anxiety of ordinary people. "gvb" is a hybrid of sharp satire, scientific dramedy and love story, a multilayered literary game of linguistic playfulness and speculative fiction, and a wildly intelligent comedy about the apocalypse. (…) It is an ambitious literary undertaking of recoding the way we communicate and give meaning to the world).

“Bunny hops across the grass,
seeking carrots as they pass.
See his ears go swaying, swishing,
songs just write themselves — no wishing!”

Gvb Meets Its Readers

Gvb book launch at Stara Sušica Castle — August 27, 2026, Stara Sušica Castle
photo: Bartol Periš

Gvb promo

1/7

She bangs the keys once more. “gvb”. Why, that's wonderful! Gvb, the acquiring of beauty in pure randomness. She liked gvb. Could it be added to the vocabulary? Colleague, your essay is quite decent, but it's lacking in gvb.

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