Love and Obstacles

by Aleksandar Hemon (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2009

  $3.42

  Set in the darkest heart of Africa, in the backwaters of Slovenia, in the melting pot of Chicago, this brilliant collection of stories is coloured throughout by the 1992 Bosnian war. All but one of them features Bogdan, first met as a surly teenager during his diplomat father's assignment in Zaire, where he's happily corrupted by a degenerate American espionage agent. In each successive story, Bogdan recalls the surreal and salient experiences of his life: his youth with his ironically depicted family; his early determination to be a poet, his accidental sojourn in America, where he was caught after the commencement of hostilities in Bosnia; and his return to a 'cesspool of insignificant, drizzly suffering', where he has a transformative night interviewing a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer. As ever, Hemon confronts pain and anonymity without blanching but also finds delicious absurdity in experience. His is the great humanity of a writer who sees life on the margins, and gives voice to what he finds in a style that is breathtakingly his own.

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.57

  'If there is a more inspired writer of fiction than Aleksandar Hemon currently at work in English, I haven't read him. Startlingly fresh and original ...Read and rejoice' GQ The explosive perils of adolescence, a country falling apart, the overwhelming vertigo of striking out abroad: this is life in which love is only one of many obstacles. From Sarajevo to the darkest heart of Africa, deepest Slovenia, and the melting pot of Chicago, this brilliant and restlessly inventive collection is shot through with humour and truth -- found in the most surprising of places. 'Eccentric, witty and alive with compassion' Observer 'Much of the wonder here is in his swaggeringly supple prose, which is by turns delectably lavish and blunt ...Some of the richest delights in contemporary fiction, as well as some of the best jokes' Guardian 'Crackles with wit and dances with invention' Independent 'Infinitely vibrant and alive' Financial Times

• New

  Paperback
  2010

  $12.86

  'If there is a more inspired writer of fiction than Aleksandar Hemon currently at work in English, I haven't read him. Startlingly fresh and original ...Read and rejoice' GQ The explosive perils of adolescence, a country falling apart, the overwhelming vertigo of striking out abroad: this is life in which love is only one of many obstacles. From Sarajevo to the darkest heart of Africa, deepest Slovenia, and the melting pot of Chicago, this brilliant and restlessly inventive collection is shot through with humour and truth -- found in the most surprising of places. 'Eccentric, witty and alive with compassion' Observer 'Much of the wonder here is in his swaggeringly supple prose, which is by turns delectably lavish and blunt ...Some of the richest delights in contemporary fiction, as well as some of the best jokes' Guardian 'Crackles with wit and dances with invention' Independent 'Infinitely vibrant and alive' Financial Times