Nenad Veličković

I'm not sure if it was me, or the translation, or the book itself, but I never really settled into Lodgers. Set in besieged Sarajevo during the 1990s war, it's narrated by the teenage Maja who records life with her family and neighbours as they try to survive the conflict. As their family home has been destroyed, they are currently living in the National Museum, of which her father is the Director. I wanted to like the novel, but much of the humour either doesn't translate (there are a number of places where the translator has just literally translated word play or puns from Serbo-Croat to English), relies on local cultural references, or consists of forced quirkiness. The narrative voice is clear, but I just didn't buy it as belonging to a teenage girl. It's not a bad book, just not one that appealed to me.… (more)

This book takes place during the Balkans wars during the early 1990’s, in a Sarajevo under siege, but despite that is pretty funny and entertaining. The first person narrator is Maja, a teenage girl who can’t decide if she’s keeping a diary or writing a novel. More than anything, this book reminded me of I Capture the Castle in terms of voice. Maja is observant and sarcastic and, as in I Capture the Castle, she describes the lives of her quirky family residing in an odd place. Pretty funny but also serious – the narrator never veers into sentiment but the comedy isn’t over the top.

Maja’s family home has been destroyed so they’ve moved in with her father, the Director of the museum, who’s been staying there to guard the collections. Besides the narrator, her parents, her grandma and her half-brother and his pregnant wife, the museum is home to the dedicated but uncommunicative porter Brkic and his friend, self-interested and verbose Julio. Maja spends her time writing, describing the day-to-day activities of all the lodgers. She details the foibles of everyone and depicts mundane events like the actions of her brother Davor’s dog Sniffy or her mother’s macrobiotic meals. However, though the family is somewhat removed from immediate combat, they are still subject to the dangers and discomforts of a city at war. Maja actively tries to avoid politics but it keeps seeping in. There are a number of plots running through Maja’s sometimes scattershot journal – Davor’s attempt to avoid conscription, her father’s attempt to prevent the Partizans from setting up headquarters in the museum and the progress of Sanja’s pregnancy and her conflicts with Davor.

Some people might complain that the book is too quirky (sometimes that seems to be the complaints with Castle) – Maja’s hippie mother or her grandmother’s secret case that Julio’s been trying to steal or the attempts to make a balloon – but I think it works well. However, her initial refusals to discuss who’s on what side can make the narrative a bit confusing and sometimes I was puzzled as to what was going on (like where all the oil was going – people kept stealing it? Then it came back?). However, it was a very engaging read – loved the first person voice. The ending was neither an out-of-character tragedy or falsely uplifting. Recommended.… (more)