He was a "Fixer of Narratives." People hired him when a name from the past—a Jovanović in Niš, a Popović in Novi Sad—needed to be found for reasons the police wouldn't touch.
Ljudi često ostavljaju svoj fiksni broj u: telefonski imenik po imenu i prezimenu srbija
Furthermore, the grammatical structure of Serbian surnames (often ending in - ić , - ov , - ev ) allows for extensive lists under a single root name. Under Jovanović , one might find dozens of entries, differentiated by first names and, crucially, by the person's (e.g., dr. , mr. , prof. ) or even a middle initial (the srednje slovo , often the father’s initial). This granularity was not accidental; it was essential for disambiguation in a society where a single apartment building might house three different Milan Jovanović s. The directory, therefore, functioned as a crude but effective database of civic identity. Under Jovanović , one might find dozens of