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By turns tragic and darkly comic, the stories are a mixed bag in terms of style. They are unified, however, by theme. In "Islands," for example, a boy and his family visit their Uncle Julius on the island of Mljet, which is infested by the very mongooses that were imported to deal with the snake problem. Julius, veteran of a Stalinist prison camp, takes a stoical tack: "So that's how it is, he said, it's all one pest after another, like revolutions." And when the family returns to Sarajevo, they are greeted by their neglected, starved cat, shaking "with irreversible hatred." The hungry feline returns in another story, when we learn that Sarajevo under siege was filled with starving cats, which were eaten by starving dogs. If it's symbolism you're after, look no further.
One of the best stories, "The Sorge Spy Ring," wonderfully evokes a sad childhood spent in the shadow of Tito's cold war repressions. A man buys his son a portable telegraph set, and the two communicate in Morse code in the privacy of their own home--but later the father is arrested for espionage, and as Tito finally dies, he too languishes on his deathbed, weakly sucking a banana. The image is both poignant and pathetic. It's also the sort of tight close-up that Hemon loves (the camera and the television are dominant images, as one might expect from a writer who resorts to CNN to find out what's happening at home). There are moments when his language is slightly unidiomatic and offkey, as if he's leaned too heavily on a well-thumbed thesaurus. On the whole, though, this is an honest, vivid, and sometimes brilliant collection. --Jonathan Allison
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. Seller Inventory # ABE-1696438944173
Book Description Condition: New. Bound Galley. A novella and stories about the trauma of war, about how an exile makes a new life. Mint new copy of galley proofs. 5-1/2 x 8-1/4, 231 pp. b/w photos. Trade paperback in glossy b/w photowraps. Seller Inventory # 39155
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. New York: Doubleday [2000]. First edition. First printing. Hardbound. Very fine/very fine in all respects. A pristine unread copy. (Smoke-free, no defects.) Comes with archival-quality mylar dust jacket protector. Signed by author on title page. His debut. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # james80
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Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 0.9. Seller Inventory # Q-038549923X
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. First Edition, First printing. A pristine unread copy. Comes with archival-quality mylar dust jacket protector. Signed by author on title page. His debut. Signed by Author(s). Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 000076