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The Mercedes
, a novel about a young man displaced by the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, is out tomorrow from Sandorf Passage in Will Firth s translation. In the excerpt below, the protagonist recalls receiving an unexpected gift from a neighbor who has recently returned from Germany.
It was fall back then, and Suzana’s dad, Uncle Slavko, had finally come home from Germany. He worked there, in Frankfurt, while Suzana, her mom, and elder sister Mira lived in a small three-story house at the beginning of our alley. Ours was at the end of the alley the one with the red gate. It was the house of my mom’s parents, where I lived with Grandfather and Grandmother. I called Grandmother “Mother.” Mom and Dad got divorced, “officially,” Grandmother explained to her friends, simple women from the neighborhood. Dad went his own way, and Mom to a big city on the Adriatic coast to finish her education. Grandfather was a traveling salesman and always on the road. Grandmother and I were a