Can a story begin from both ends and meet in the middle, just like two lovers destined to intersect only for a fleeting moment?

The Inner Side of the Wind is Milorad Pavić’s "novel of the clepsydra" (hourglass), published in 1991. The book has two front covers and no back cover, inviting the reader to start from either side. One half tells the story of Hero, a chemistry student in 20th-century Belgrade; the other follows Leander, a mason in the 17th-century Balkans.

As the reader turns the pages, these two narratives—separated by centuries—rush toward each other, finally colliding in the literal middle of the book. Blending the ancient Greek myth with surreal symbolism and philosophical depth, Pavić explores how love and time bridge the gap between the masculine and feminine, the past and the present.

It is a literary experiment where the physical act of reading mirrors the tragic, beautiful union of its characters.