How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone, By Sasa Stanisic
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Aleksandar Krsmanovic is enjoying a sociableYugoslav childhood when his beloved grandfather pops his clogs - in light of what's to come, it's a cosily normal event. When the war eventually arrives in his hometown of Visegrad, bombs drop and tanks roll in: Aleksandar has a Muslim mother, but a Serb father.
The family escapes to Germany. A decade later he returns to Bosnia to track down a Muslim friend, Asija. The events described are dire, but Sasa Stanisic's inventive flourishes, in this translation by Anthea Bell, inject the novel with a breezy bravado.
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