Acclaimed author Aleksandar Hemon returns at his most dazzling and untempered with MY PARENTS: AN INTRODUCTION / THIS DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU, two books in one in a flip dos-à-dos format: the story of Aleksandar Hemon’s parents’ immigration from Sarajevo to Canada and a book of short memories of the author’s family, friends, and […]
Tag: The Book of My Lives
2013 National Book Critics Awards Finalists
The National Book Critics Circle has named the finalists for its best books of 2013 and Macmillan is thrilled to have nine nominees from Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Bloomsbury!
FICTION
SOMEONE by Alice McDermott
NONFICTION
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE by David Finkel
THE UNWINDING: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer
POETRY
METAPHYSICAL DOG by Frank Bidart
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
THE BOOK OF MY LIVES by Aleksandar Hemon
MEN WE REAPED by Jesmyn Ward
BIOGRAPHY
HOLDING ON UPSIDE DOWN: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore by Linda Leavell
CRITICISM
THE KRAUS PROJECT: Essays by Karl Kraus, translated and annotated by Jonathan Franzen
FORTY-ONE FALSE STARTS: Essays on Artists and Writers by Janet Malcolm
Click here to view the full list of nominees. Winners will be announced in a ceremony on Thursday, March 13, at 6:00 pm EST. Congratulations to all nominees!
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Indie Next: The Book of My Lives
It won't surprise you to hear I was immediately drawn to THE BOOK OF MY LIVES, Aleksander Hemon's memoir in essays, because of that charming blue alien fellow on the cover. Despite the harsh disappointment I experienced when I found out this was not, in fact, science fiction, I've come back to this book again and again because of the glowing praise it gets from readers with hearts both warmed and broken.
Here are a few quotes from reviews:
"Amuses, informs and inspires—then, finally, rips open the heart." —Kirkus Reviews
"The book culminates with 'The Aquarium,' 28 heart-wrenching pages of powerful prose originally published in the New Yorker, about his infant daughter’s battle with cancer that is nothing short of a tour de force; its terrible beauty demonstrates Hemon’s transformation as a writer and a man." —Publishers Weekly
Barbara Hoffert of Library Journal selected it for her March 2013 picks list and said, "Folded within this narrative, though, is a tale of two cities—Sarajevo and Chicago—and his love for them both, for his family, and for soccer."
And we just found out it will be on the April Indie Next List!
FSG posted a vine of Hemon signing copies of THE BOOK OF MY LIVES in the office. Lookie.
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