Where You Come From: Winner of the German Book Prize

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A powerful exploration of identity and belonging, Where You Come From is the major new novel from internationally acclaimed and bestselling author Sasa Stanisic, published for the first time by Jonathan Cape A powerful exploration of identity and belonging, Where You Come From is the major new novel from internationally acclaimed and bestselling author Sasa Stanisic Sasa Stanisic's Where You Come From is a novel about a village where only thirteen people remain, a country that no longer exists, a shattered family that is his own. Blending autofiction, fable, and choose-your-own-adventure, Stanisic traces a family's escape during the conflict in Yugoslavia, and the years that followed as they built a life in Germany. As he explores what it means to be European today, he examines how it feels to learn a new language, to find new friends and new jobs, and to build an identity between countries and cultures. Translated by Damion Searls, Where You Come From is about homelands, both remembered and imagined. A book that bends form and genre with wit, heart, and exceptional craftsmanship to explore questions that lie inside all of us- about language and shame, about arrival and making it just in time, about luck and death, about what role our origins and memories play in our lives. 'Wonderfully inventive and impressive.' - Guardian

Reviews

A triumph, funny and touching and subtly profound... it builds a momentum that dazzles throughout. An exhilarating and powerful read. * Jennifer Croft *
Staniic is a poet and revolutionary who has found his true home in language. * Rolling Stone *
Wonderfully inventive and impressive. * Guardian *
Offensively gifted... Some kind of freak genius. * Irish Examiner *
Staniic is an exceptionally talented, impish and caring writer who has walked the edge of the abyss. * LA Times *

Author Bio

Sasa Stanisic, born in Visegrad in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1978, came to Germany when he was fourteen. He studied at the Deutsche Literaturinstitut in Leipzig. His first book How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone became an instant bestseller and was translated into more than 30 languages. Stanisic has received numerous stipends and prizes- For the short stories in Trappers he was awarded the Rheingau Literature Prize and the Schubart Literature Prize. For Where You Come From he received the German Book Prize 2019, the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize and the Leipzig Book Fair Prize. Sasa Stanisic lives and works in Hamburg.