About Amazon Pilgrimage

Ivan Naumovski, Publisher, IBN Studio, Belgrade

Dragan Simeunović, an unquestionably gifted storyteller, chose to explore the question of spirituality as the central theme of his novel Amazonian Pilgrimage. His youthful interests and questioning of life’s great themes, enriched by his studies in philosophy, were brought to completion through a journey to the Amazon. In one of the last places on Earth where spirituality can be experienced in its purest form, he found himself alone before the First Mover and the ultimate reason. Or before himself?

This deeply reflective novel prefers to ask questions rather than offer answers. It is precisely through these questions that Amazonian Pilgrimage offers the reader an opportunity to reflect for themselves on themes which, in today’s fast-paced world, sometimes seem as though they are no longer important—or that we simply do not have time for them.

If I had to find a single word to describe this work, that word would be harmony. Harmony with oneself, with the world we live in, with our surroundings and with other people—or with something else entirely; it makes no difference. Why? As I have already said, this work does not necessarily provide answers, but asks the right questions, occasionally offering possible ways of understanding the world and ourselves.

Perhaps a quotation from the work itself best illustrates what I mean:

When I say God, I mean that wonderful awareness and sense of purpose that stands behind everything that exists and from which all that exists arises. My feeling, my experience of searching for life’s purpose, tells me that it is one and the same thing, presented and represented in different ways across different traditions, but that in itself it is always one and the same—indisputable and unchanging.

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