My Parents: An Introduction / This Does Not Belong to You

De: Aleksandar Hemon

Narrado por: Jeremy Arthur

Hudson Booksellers Best of the Year - 2019

Two audiobooks in one in a flip dos-à-dos format: The story of Aleksandar Hemon’s parents’ immigration from Sarajevo to Canada and a collection of short memories of the author’s family, friends, and childhood in Sarajevo.

In My Parents, Aleksandar Hemon tells the story of his parents’ immigration to Canada - of the lives that were upended by the war in Bosnia and siege of Sarajevo and the new lives his parents were forced to build. As ever with his work, he portrays both the perfect, intimate details (his mother’s lonely upbringing, his father’s fanatical beekeeping), and a sweeping, heartbreaking history of his native country. It is a story full of many Hemons, of course - his parents, sister, uncles, cousins - and also of German occupying forces, Yugoslav partisans, royalist Serb collaborators, singing Ukrainians, and a few befuddled Canadians.

My Parents is Hemon at his very best, grounded in stories lovingly polished by retelling, but making them exhilarating and fresh in writing, summoning unexpected laughs in the midst of the heartbreaking narratives. This Does Not Belong to You, meanwhile, is the exhilarating, freewheeling, unabashedly personal companion to My Parents - a perfect dose of Hemon at his most dazzling and untempered in a series of beautifully distilled memories and observations and explosive, hilarious, poignant miniatures. Presented dos-à-dos with My Parents, it complements and completes a major work from a major writer.

In the words of Colum McCann, “Aleksandar Hemon is, quite frankly, the greatest writer of our generation.” Hemon has never been better than here. And the moment has never been more ready for his voice, nor has the world ever been more in need of it.

©2019 Alexsandar Hemon (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Beautiful writing about ...nothing

It is not "about nothing" really, It is about the author's parents, history of Yugoslavia, and a story of immigration. There is the second part of a book with short stories -- very similar to the first one. If you want to check that you'd like the book, you can listen to any of the stories in the second part (the stories are small), and if you like it, you can read the whole book as (my guess) you will have the same impression and emotions.

When I started reading, I was sure to give 5 stars to this book: wonderful writing, good language, interesting characters (not only protagonists) but other characters... Then I just realized how ordinary the characters are and no philosophical, historical, or any issues I could learn from. I realized that despite a nice entertainment value, I would not become wiser reading this book. So I figured I would give this book 4 stars, but continued reading/listening. But then without any need from MHO the author started using F words; really: out of the blue and without any reason... My guess is that author got bored himself and used F words to provide "some spice..." I do not think I will read him again, and 3 stars is my final grade.