'The hard part in writing a narrative of someone's life is choosing
from the abundance of details and microevents, all of them equally
significant, or equally insignificant,' writes Alekshandar Hemon in
this sequel to The Question of Bruno. Nowhere Man (named for the
boys' favourite Beatles song, representing their lack of prospects
in Bosnia) continues the story of Jozef Pronek, a Sarajevo native
who, on a visit to Chicago, was stranded in the United States when
the Balkan war broke out, unable to return home. Pronek's story is
told in a simple yet eloquent language, infusing the mundane with
ominous significance. Hemon has been writing in English since 1995,
and brings an expatriate's eye to the story he tells, filling every
line with the numbing anomie of living somewhere alien. His life is
filtered through a fumbling lens, told by narrators more obsessed
with minute detail and associative anecdotes rather than a
sequential narrative. Jozef himself never speaks, and the story is
never told from his point of view, but is full of the experiences
of being adrift in a culture, uncomprehending and isolating;
learning a new language, and navigating a new city. And although
the pacing sometimes drags, the little details are worth it.
Nowhere Man is proof that Alekshandar Hemon is an exciting new
voice in literature. (Kirkus UK)
'Aleksandar Hemon has established himself as that rare thing, an
essential writer. Another small act of defiance against this
narrowing world' Observer 'His language sings . . . I should not be
surprised if Hemon wins the Nobel Prize at some point' Giles Foden
In Aleksandar Hemon's electrifying first book, The Question of
Bruno, Jozef Pronek left Sarajevo to visit Chicago in 1992, just in
time to watch war break out at home on TV. Unable to return, he
began to make his way in a foreign land and his adventures were
unforgettable. Now Pronek, the accidental nomad, gets his own book,
and startles us into yet more exhilarating ways of seeing the world
anew. 'If the plot is mercury, quick and elusive, sentence by
sentence and word for word, Aleksandar Hemon's writing is gold'
Times Literary Supplement 'Downbeat but also hilarious, while the
writing itself is astonishing' Time Out 'Hemon can't write a boring
sentence, and the English language is the richer for it' New York
Times 'Sheer exuberance, generosity and engagement with life'
Sunday Times In Aleksandar Hemon's electrifying first book, The
Question of Bruno, Jozef Pronek left Sarajevo to visit Chicago in
1992, just in time to watch war break out at home on TV. Unable to
return, he began to make his way in a foreign land and his
adventures were unforgettable. Now Pronek, the accidental nomad,
gets his own book, and startles us into yet more exhilarating ways
of seeing the world anew.
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