Ivo Mitev-Žile: Tishina e potrebna — a novel born from MZT Skopje vs Real Madrid (1996)
A 1996 MZT Skopje–Real Madrid game becomes the starting point for a novel about Aerodrom, memory and belonging.
Ivo Mitev-Žile has published his fifth book, a novel titled Tishina e potrebna (Silence Is Needed) that starts from a single evening of sport and expands into a portrait of a neighborhood and a generation.
From a legendary match to a landscape of memory
The opening frame of the book is the match between MZT Skopje and Real Madrid played in Skopje in 1996, a game that has since acquired cult status among local basketball fans. That evening serves as the catalyst for the narrator's long journey through personal and collective recollection.
Through the eyes of the protagonist known only as K., Mitev-Žile weaves together memoir and fiction. The result is not a match chronicle but a reflective novel in which the court and the scoreboard recede and the streets of Aerodrom, the rituals of fandom, and the small dramas of everyday life come to the fore.
Tonally the book moves between nostalgia and the searching questions of coming of age: fear, hope, identity, and belonging. Elements of magical realism appear at moments, allowing memories to grow into images that reshape the past rather than simply record it.
On its strongest pages Aerodrom becomes a living presence and K. turns into a symbol of a generation. The match with Real Madrid remains the spark, but the novel argues that the deeper victories are those that remain in the memory of a place and its people.
Photo: press material from the event
