The novel Sampas is written in the form of a road novel, where through fragment of a journey we follow the tale of two young people who travel through central and southern Montenegro, where they, as the main characters, illuminate the complexities of their individual fates, but also the collective experience of the spirit of the place and the time in which the story unfolds. The different events and internal sensations of the protagonists are conditioned by the social and political realities and the atmosphere of the tale, which strengthens their desire to leave Montenegro in search of a different, better life. The milieu within which the characters in the novel seek their “sampas” (a local term symbolising freedom, but also wanderlust) is that of contemporary Montenegro, or the ex-Yugoslav context. Alongside the political references in the novel (the action takes place over an election weekend) “Sampas” also works at the level of a love story, where the couple’s relationship is explored, and thus the story becomes an exploration of the idea of that relationship, indeed of all relationships.
