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Home > Translation > The World Bookshelf > Books > Ukulele Jam

Ukulele Jam

Miki, a Bosnian teenager, and his family are escaping the Balkan war. They live in a Croatian refugee camp, a former holiday resort on the Adriatic, but it’s difficult to adjust to their new circumstances. With the war rumbling in the background and his brother missing in a Serbian prison camp, Miki and his new friends pick up girls, listen to music and have campfire parties on the beach. Then war breaks out between Croats and Bosnians and friends threaten to become enemies. Miki wants to emigrate to Sweden, but his parents can’t face leaving behind their old life in Bosnia.

Based on his own experiences, Alen Mešković has written a novel by turns humorous and tragic. It is lively, poetic, raw, affecting and very funny, all the while depicting a European tragedy whose consequences still resonate today.

Its subject and its resonant style made   Ukulele Jam   a success in Europe, where it has been translated into nine languages.

Author

Alen Mešković

Alen Mešković

Books

Ukulele Jam

Alen Mešković was born in Bosnia in 1977 and has lived in Denmark since 1994. His debut publication was the critically acclaimed poetry collection Første gang tilbage (First Time Back) in 2009. His first novel, Ukulele Jam (2011) was nominated for the literary award Weekendavisens Litteraturpris. It has been published in nine countries, including Germany, where it is also a long-running theatre production. In 2012, Alen Mešković was awarded a three year working grant by the Danish Arts Foundation for the novel. Published in 2016, One-Man Tent, a stand-alone sequel of Ukulele Jam, is being translated into five languages.

Translator

Paul Russell Garrett

Paul Russell Garrett

Books

Erik & the Gods: Journey to Valhalla

Ukulele Jam

Paul Russell Garrett works from Danish and Norwegian and, on occasion, Swedish. Recent translations include Lars-Henrik Olsen’s Erik and the Gods, Lars Mytting’s The Sixteen Trees of the Somme, and Christina Hesselholdt’s Companions. In 2019, Fitzcarraldo Editions will publish his translation of Hesselholdt’s latest novel, Vivian, a fictional account of the early years of the American street photographer Vivian Maier. Paul serves on the committee of the Translators Association and heads up the [Foreign Affairs] Translates! theatre translation programme.

Published by

Seren Books, 2018
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Miki, a Bosnian teenager, and his family are escaping the Balkan war. They live in a Croatian refugee camp, a former holiday resort on the Adriatic, but it’s difficult to adjust to their new circumstances. With the war rumbling in the background and his brother missing in a Serbian prison camp, Miki and his new friends pick up girls, listen to music and have campfire parties on the beach. Then war breaks out between Croats and Bosnians and friends threaten to become enemies. Miki wants to emigrate to Sweden, but his parents can’t face leaving behind their old life in Bosnia.

Based on his own experiences, Alen Mešković has written a novel by turns humorous and tragic. It is lively, poetic, raw, affecting and very funny, all the while depicting a European tragedy whose consequences still resonate today.

Its subject and its resonant style made   Ukulele Jam   a success in Europe, where it has been translated into nine languages.

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