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Monday, 14 November 2016

Nowhere Man - Aleksandar Hemon

A novel by the author of The Question of Bruno - a Bosnian from Sarajevo.
This is a novel-length exploration of some of the themes from his short stories - in particular, the life of an involuntary immigrant to the U.S. during the war in Bosnia.  There are some wonderful American characters and moments as seen from the eyes of a newly arrived immigrant from a very different culture, and as an involuntary immigrant, who does not worship American culture.  He ends up with a bizarre and colourful (though not in a particularly positive way) set of social misfits in Chicago doing canvassing for Greenpeace...  Equally bizarre is the account of his visit to the Ukraine through a cultural group whose goal is to learn more about their Ukrainian background - the visit happens to fall just during the time of the coup against Gorbachev.

Worth the read - insightful and humourous at times.

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