Love and Obstacles
Hemon, Aleksandar

RRP
A$22.99

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, and his accidental sojourn in America. As ever, Hemon confronts pain and anonymity without blanching but also finds delicious absurdity in experience.

Author Information

Aleksandar Hemon is the author of the prize-winning The Lazarus Project, as well as Nowhere Man and The Question of Bruno. Born in Sarajevo, Hemon has lived in Chicago since 1992, and wrote his first story in English in 1995. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and a genius grant from the MacArthur foundation in 2004.