Aleksandar Hemon

Aleksander Hemon--winner of a MacArthur "Genius" Grant and finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award for The Lazarus Project--has earned a reputation as one of the English language's most original and moving wordsmiths. The stories in Love and Obstacles are linked through ... (more)the narrator, a young man who--like Hemon himself--was raised in Yugoslavia and immigrated to the United States. Born in Sarajevo, Aleksander Hemon visited Chicago in 1992, but while he was there, Sarajevo came under seige, and he was unable to return home. His stories are unexpectedly humorous, always insightful and often heartbreaking. Join us for a discussion and book signing with Aleksander Hemon.

Aleksandar Hemon, who was recently awarded a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation, visits to discuss his new book, Love and Obstacles, a powerful, disquieting collection of eight stories whose settings range from Chicago to the author's native Sarajevo. Hemon's acclaimed books include The Lazarus ... (more)Project, a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award, Nowhere Man and The Question of Bruno. He is also a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Tuesday, May 19, 7:15 p.m., Decatur Library Auditorium.

You are invited to join a discussion of The Lazarus Project, a multifaceted novel by Aleksandar Hemon, based on a tragic footnote to Chicago’s history. A limited number of book discussion copies will be available to check out on your Chicago Public Library card starting Saturday, December 20, at the ... (more)Harold Washington Library Center 7th floor, Literature and World Language Information Desk. Kirkus Reviews has called Hemon’s new novel “profoundly moving” for its parallel stories of two immigrants to Chicago from Eastern Europe, separated by 100 years yet joined by common roots and the search for identity. Visit http://www.aleksandarhemon.com for a fascinating look at The Lazarus Project.

(NOTE: Tickets $15.00 EA / FREE for Educators & Students) DESCRIPTION:This annual prize, awarded separately for fiction and nonfiction, recognizes recently published works “embodying the spirit of the nation’s heartland.” The prizes are part of the Chicago Tribune’s ongoing dedication to ... (more)reading, writing, and ideas.

Fiction: The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon
After two stunning story collections, the Sarajevo-born, Chicago-based MacArthur Fellow has produced a novel that intertwines historical atmosphere with hilarious (if heartbreaking) contemporary storytelling. In Chicago, 1908, 19-year-old Lazarus Averbuch, a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe, is murdered by the chief of Chicago police. In the present day, a young Chicago writer, Brik— also from Eastern Europe—becomes obsessed with Lazarus’s story: what really happened, and why? An original and entertaining work, The Lazarus Project confirms Hemon’s reputation as one of the most dynamic voices of our time.

Nonfiction: Head and Heart and What the Gospels Meant by Garry Wills
Wills, a respected writer on religion and adjunct professor of history at Northwestern University, published two stunning books in the past year; both deserve Heartland Prize recognition. Head and Heart is a highly readable history of Christianity’s place in the American experience. In What the Gospels Meant, Wills mines the goals, methods, and styles of the evangelists and considers their impact on the gospels’ message.

All proceeds will benefit the Chicago Tribune Holiday Campaign, a campaign of Chicago Tribune Charities, a McCormick Foundation Fund.

The Lazarus Project (Picador) is an epic narrative born from a historical event – the 1908 killing of a 19 year old Jewish immigrant by the chief of Chicago police. The story follows Vladimir Brik, a Bosnian-American writer, who, a century later, gets funding to travel to Eastern Europe to unearth ... (more)what really happened.

Hemon was stranded in the United States in 1992 when war broke out in his native Sarajevo and completed his first short story within three years of learning to write in English. He contributes regularly to the New Yorker, Granta and the Paris Review; his first two novels, The Question of Bruno and Nowhere Man have been widely praised.

Admission:
Free, but reservations are required on a first-come basis.

Information:
To RSVP, please call (312) 832-678

"Aleksandar Hemon will read from and sign his new novel The Lazarus Project ($24.95 Riverhead). In two previous collections of stories, The Question of Bruno and the National Book Critics Circle-finalist Nowhere Man, Hemon has earned unmatched literary acclaim and a reputation as one of the English language's ... (more)most original and moving wordsmiths. In The Lazarus Project, Hemon has turned these talents to an embracing novel that intertwines haunting historical atmosphere and detail with sharp and shimmering - sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking - contemporary storytelling."