The Book of My Lives
eBook - ePub

The Book of My Lives

  1. 223 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Book of My Lives

About this book

The acclaimed author of The Lazarus Project revisits his youth in Sarajevo and recounts his adjustment to life in North America in this emotional memoir.

A Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award
A  Kirkus Reviews  Best Nonfiction Book of 2013


Aleksandar Hemon's lives begin in Sarajevo, a small, blissful city where a young boy's life is consumed with street soccer with the neighborhood kids, resentment of his younger sister, and trips abroad with his engineer-cum-beekeeper father. Here, a young man's life is about poking at the pretensions of the city's elders with American music, bad poetry, and slightly better journalism. And then, his life in Chicago: watching from afar as war breaks out in Sarajevo and the city comes under siege, no way to return home; his parents and sister fleeing Sarajevo with the family dog, leaving behind all else they had ever known; and Hemon himself starting a new life, his own family, in this new city.
And yet this is not really a memoir.  The Book of My Lives, Hemon's first book of nonfiction, defies convention and expectation. It is a love song to two different cities; it is a heartbreaking paean to the bonds of family; it is a stirring exhortation to go out and play soccer—and not for the exercise. It is a book not only driven by passions but also built on fierce intelligence, devastating experience, and sharp insight. And like the best narratives, it is a book that will leave you a different reader—a different person, with a new way of looking at the world—when you've finished.
" The Book of My Lives is written with the full force of humanity. It will make you think, laugh, cry, and remember yourself. If you've never read Aleksandar Hemon, prepare to have your worldview deepened." —Jonathan Safran Foer

"You should read Aleksandar Hemon's memoir for the same reason you should read his fiction: He is not only a remarkably talented writer but also one of the great social observers, a cultural anthropologist who seems at home everywhere and nowhere and who balances despair with hope, anger with humor." —Benjamin Percy, NPR

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Yes, you can access The Book of My Lives by Aleksandar Hemon in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Scienze sociali & Biografie in ambito letterario. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Notice
  4. Contents
  5. Dedication
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. The Lives of Others
  8. Sound and Vision
  9. Family Dining
  10. The Kauders Case
  11. Life During Wartime
  12. The Magic Mountain
  13. Let There Be What Cannot Be
  14. Dog Lives
  15. My Prisoner
  16. The Book of My Life
  17. The Lives of a Flaneur
  18. Reasons Why I Do Not Wish to Leave Chicago: An Incomplete, Random List
  19. If God Existed, He’d Be a Solid Midfielder
  20. The Lives of Grandmasters
  21. Kennel Life
  22. The Aquarium
  23. Table of Discontents
  24. Additional Praise for The Book of My Lives
  25. Also by Aleksandar Hemon
  26. About the Author
  27. Copyright