compelling multi-voiced chorale put in prose.”
—Leipzig Book Fair Prize Jury
“A book like few others. Politically well-versed and
stylistically a work of art.”
—Die Zeit
“Highly entertaining and full of chutzpah.”
—Die Welt
“Switching among styles with a dancing virtuosity, Staniši
knits a dozen characters into a multi-stranded tissue of gossip, myth,
and memory . . . In English, Staniši makes a dream team with
Anthea Bell, who translates with a pitch-perfect ear for
every twist and frisk of his German.”
—The Independent
“Episodic, impressionistic and whimsical. . . clever and funny.”
—TIBOR FISCHER, The Guardian
PRAISE FOR How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone
“I love this book. It’s funny and it’s heartfelt and it’s brazen and
it’s true. Find some space on your shelf beside Aleksandar Hemon,
—COLUM McCANN, author of Let the Great World Spin,
winner of the National Book Award
“Staniši is an exceptionally talented, impish and caring writer
who has walked the edge of the abyss. One hopes that he will
continue to grapple with the paradoxes intrinsic to the human
condition and tell many more empathic, revealing and imaginative
stories full of cathartic laughter and feeling.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Madcap flights of invention and comic exaggeration clash movingly
with the painfully real chronicle of terror, loss, and exile at the story’s
heart . . . How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone bears witness to
this horror with tragicomic intensity, reflecting the possibilities and
limitations of fiction in the face of atrocity.”
—Bookforum
“Beyond succeeding as a compelling fictional account of the very real
tragedy of a town in Bosnia-Herzegovina, [How the Soldier Repairs the
Gramophone] is also testament to the power of the imagination—and
storyteller, he’s able to translate unspeakably gruesome history into
something poignant and hauntingly beautiful.”
—Village Voice
© KATJA SÄMANN
SAŠA STANIŠI was born in 1978 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and currently lives in Germany. His award-winning debut How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone has been translated into 32 languages. Before the Feast was a bestseller in Germany and won the prestigious Leipzig Book Fair Prize.
Copyright © 2016 Saša Staniši
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or
reviews. For information, contact Tin House Books, 2617 NW Thurman
St., Portland, OR 97210.
Published by Tin House Books, Portland, Oregon, and Brooklyn,
New York
Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Names: Staniši, Saša, 1978- author. | Bell, Anthea, translator.
Title: Before the feast / by Sasa Stanisic ; [English translation, Anthea Bell].
Description: First U.S. edition. | Portland, Oregon : Tin House Books, 2016.
| ©2015
Identifiers: LCCN 2016006742 (print) | LCCN 2016012861 (ebook) |
ISBN
9781941040393 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781941040409 (ebook)
Classification: LCC PT2721.T36 V6713 2016 (print) | LCC PT2721.
T36 (ebook) |
DDC 833/.92--dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016006742
First US edition 2016
Interior design by Diane Chonette
www.tinhouse.com