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The novel is based on a factual case, concerning Lazarus Averbuch, an Eastern European Jew, who was shot down in 1908, by the Chicago police chief. Lazarus was mistaken for an anarchist, amidst a time period of fear, prejudice and anxiety over immigrants, and over Jews who were part of the then, anarchist movement. The novel moves from 1908 forward to the current time, where a Bosnian writer named Vladimir Brik, undertakes a modern-day journey to research and explore Averbuch’s background, places where he lived, people involved in his life before emigration, etc. (financed with a grant), in order to write a book about him. He brings a man named Rora, a Bosnian photographer with him. For Brik, this will be his finest accomplishment to date.

The Lazarus Project is much more than a book about the murder of Lazarus Averbuch. It is a book about loss, assimilation, a book about yearning for one’s roots and familiar surroundings. It is a book that explores the loss of the familiar with the loss of one’s spirit. There is also a strong underlying theme of fear, contrasting the fear in 1908 of the anarchist movement, and how it parallels with fears of today’s terrorism, politics and prejudices.

It is a book that includes many journeys, from spiritual to geographical to emotional, the discoveries along the way are told with sensitivity. Bravo to Aleksandar Hemon! ( )

Hemon presents a dual story of Bosnian immigrants in 1908 and the present. Lazarus Averbuch comes to Chicago in 1908 to join sister Olga after surviving the pogrom in Bosnia. The question of his death in the foyer of the Chicago police chief is taken up by would be writer Vladimar Brik who escaped to Chicago prior to the war in Sarajevo in the early 90's and then being unable to return, mirroring the author's own experience. The big question is "what was Lazarus doing at the police commissioner's house?" and how/why was he killed? Hemon's prose is beautiful and his story, which intermingles the past and the present, provides a wonderfully fulfilling narrative. Excellent! ( )

I know I "should" have liked this book, but I just felt dirty reading it. Why? I know not. Not a good thing. ( )

The Lazarus Project is about a struggling,modern day Bosnian writer researching the 1908 murder of a Jewish immigrant named Lazarus Averbach by a Chicago police chief. Vladmir Brik, the writer, is the narrator of the story and the action is filtered through his experience. The chapters of the book alternate between the telling of Lazarus' killing and its effect on his sister and friend, and Brik's half-hearted attempt to research and write the story.
The major theme of this book seems to be the difficulty for foreigners in adapting to American life and overcoming racial bigotry and fear. It is easy to see the similarities between 1908 Chicago and 21st century Chicago. Both eras suffer from mistrust and misinformation about alien cultures and the practice of terrorism.
Ultimately the book is about violence and death and how they are universal for human beings regardless of time and circumstance. The Lazarus Project is both desperate and depressing at times but always maintains interest ( )

The Lazarus Project (2008) by Bosnian-American author Aleksander Hemon represents Bosnia and Herzegovina in my Around the World For a Good Book project, albeit only a small portion of the novel takes place in that stricken country. Still it captures the spirit of ATWFAGB in the way it travels between the "countries" of America and Europe, and of past and present. The author Hemon was born in Sarajevo of Ukrainian and Serbian ancestry. He went to Chicago in 1990 and found himself unable to return home once the war began.

The Lazarus Project tells two stories. First, there's Lazarus Averbuch, an Eastern European Jew who having survived a pogrom emigrates with his sister to Chicago. There on March 2, 1908, Lazarus attempted to deliver a letter to the chief of police, the latter refusing the letter and instead shooting and killing Lazarus. Amplifying the attrocity, the police chief concocts a tale that Lazarus was a dangerous anarchist. From this kernel of a true story Hemon draws out the aftermath of the anti-anarchist hysteria on Lazarus' sister Olga and his colleague Isador.

The second story, in alternating chapters, is the contemporary tale of Brik, a man much like Hemon himself - an immigrant from Sarajevo suffering a sort of survivor's guilt for not being at home during the war and attrocities. He's out of work and in a loveless marriage with an American-born neurosurgeon, but holds on to the promise of writing a book about Lazarus Averbuch. Receiving grant money for his research, he sets of on a journey through Eastern Europe to follow Lazarus' path to America.

Accompanying Brik is a friend and photographer Rora. Each chapter begins with a beautiful photograph with the conceit that they are from the lens of Rora himself. Rora is also a counterpart to Brik as a survivor of the war, participating in a paramilitary group in Sarajevo. Rora's stories of the war and Brik's ceaseless curiosity about them are a major theme in this book.

This is not a cheerful book. Brik and Rora's journey seems to be through an Eastern Europe full of sad prostitutes, mobsters, and sterile fast-food chains. Olga and Isador must survive insults and degradation. It would be hard to read this book without gaining a sense of fatalism. Yet, Hemon's way with language redeems the book, drawing beauty out of suffering. ( )