How The Soldier Repairs The Gramophone by Sasa Stanisic

How The Soldier Repairs The Gramophone

by Sasa Stanisic

translated from the German by Anthea Bell

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006, ISBN 9780297852995, paperback, 

Very Good Condition, some edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, some foxing to fore-edges, (see photographs)

"Aleksandar is Comrade-in-Chief of fishing, the best magician in the non-aligned States and painter of unfinished things.  he knows the first chapter of Marx's Das Kapital by heart but spends most of his time playing football on the banks of the river Drina.  when his grandfather, a master storyteller, dies of the fastest-heart-attack-in-the-world while watching Carl Lewis's record, Aleksandar promises to carry on the tradition.
However when the shadow of war spreads to Visegrad, the world as he knows it stops.  Suddenly it is not important how much a spider's life weighs, or why Marko's horse is related to Superman.  Suddenly it is important to have the right name and to pretend that the little Muslim girl, Asija, is his sister.  Then Aleksandar's parents decide to flee to Germany and he must leave his new friend behind.  But on the tenth anniversary of Grandpa Slavko's death, Aleksandar decides to return to Visegrad to find out what happened to Asika and the life he left behind."