In this stylistically adventurous, brilliantly funny tour de force-the most highly acclaimed debut since Nathan Englander's-Aleksander Hemon writes of love and war, Sarajevo and America, with a skill and imagination that are breathtaking.
A love affair is experienced in the blink of an eye as the Archduke Ferdinand watches his wife succumb to an assassin's bullet. An exiled writer, working in a sandwich shop in Chicago, adjusts to the absurdities of his life. Love letters from war torn Sarajevo navigate the art of getting from point A to point B without being shot. With a sure-footed sense of detail and life-saving humor, Aleksandar Hemon examines the overwhelming events of history and the effect they have on individual lives. These heartrending stories bear the unmistakable mark of an important international writer.
"The Yugoslavian-born author came to the United States on vacation but was forced to stay when his country erupted in war. In this collection of stories, political reality is driven into everyday life like a wedge or-just as often-a knife. The most straightforward pieces benefit immensely from the fact that English is not Hemons native language. Like Conrads, his prose often makes the most of emph
