Name: Jugoslavija, moja dežela
Price: 17 EUR
Availability: SoldOut
ISBN: 9789612428686

Yugoslavia, My Fatherland

Jugoslavija, moja dežela

Goran Vojnović

Genre:: Novel
Year of publication:: 2012
Number of pages:: 281
Rights sold:: Armenia (Edge), Austria (Folio Verlag), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Buybook), Bulgaria (ICU), Croatia (Fraktura), Czech Republic (Nakladatelství Pavel Mervart), Egypt (Al Arabi), Hungary (Typotex), India/Malayalam (Green Books), Israel (Lesa Books), Italy (Forum Editrice), Lithuania (kitos knygos), North Macedonia (ILI-ILI), Poland (Sedno), Romania (Casa Cărții de Știință), Serbia (Rende), Spain (Libros del asteroide), Sweden (Ramus), Turkey (Kutu Yayınları), UK (Istros Books), Ukraine (Old Lion Publishing)
Available reading materials:: English pdf, German pdf, Spanish pdf, Italian pdf

It is the summer of 1991 and Vladan Borojević, 11, is enjoying an almost idyllic childhood in the seaside town of Pula in today’s Croatia. Unaware that their country is on the brink of disintegration, he and his young friends spend their days hanging out, swimming and playing sports. Vladan’s Serbian-born father is a proud member of the Yugoslav Army. When he is deployed to Belgrade, the halcyon days of Vladan’s childhood come to an abrupt end and his father eventually disappears from his life. Seventeen years later, Vladan, now estranged from his mother and living in Slovenia, googles the name of his father and unexpectedly discovers a dark family secret. The discovery that he is the son of a fugitive war criminal sends him off on a journey around the Balkans to find his elusive father. On the way, he begins to understand how the falling apart of his family is closely linked with the disintegration of the world they used to live in. The story of the Borojević family deals with the tragic fates of the people who managed to avoid the bombs but were unable to escape the war.

Kresnik Award for best novel of the year 2013

Shortlisted for the Hotlist Prize for best book from independent publishers in German-speaking countries 2016

Longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award 2017

Latisana per il Nord Est Award 2018

Angelus Central European Literature Award 2020

At last comes a work which will become required reading both within and beyond the Balkans.

The Irish Times
Vojnović is influenced by American movies, and Yugoslavia, My Fatherland uses cinema’s generic conventions to address the theme of war crimes head-on … A gripping narrative that requires no allegorical decipherment, its author employs a noir style to capture the seaminess and stupor of Yugoslavia and traces these early symptoms to the country’s disintegration. In this milieu, national or ethnic identity is a giant Rubik’s cube made of razors.

Times Literary Supplement
An important book. The author has taken what is an explosive subject and with a clever and captivating approach turned it into excellent fiction and a great narrative about the power of the past.

Berliner Zeitung
A brilliant, sharp and human story of common people and their tragical destiny after the Balkan wars in the nineties of the past century. The story is told in rich, fluent language and in conversational tone. It is an extremely well thought-out novel because the author knows the material, the ethnic and linguistic nuances and uses a lively sense of humour.

Librarians’ Comments, International Dublin Literary Award 2017
This novel is dark, deep and disturbing. Vlad is estranged from his mother, who he calls ‘the Terminator’. In modern-day former Yugoslavia ethnic, social, cultural, political and language tensions are rife – and in Vlad’s own unhappy life. His family home is inhabited by Croats; whole villages have been emptied; he doesn’t know which language to speak. The bleakness of this story is redeemed by the searing honesty, un-sentimentality and insight of the storyteller. There’s also a wonderfully wild wordiness and exuberance to his language.

Rosie Goldsmith, British journalist and director of the European Literature Network
Vojnović takes his protagonist on a journey through the remains of time, through places where time stopped. Places that were full of life and are now cold graveyards of broken lives.

Pogledi
Vojnović was probably the first in the Balkan region to ask the question that has perhaps the greatest importance for the future, the question that only children can ask their parents if there is to be any effect: “And what did you do during the war?”

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