Ruta Tannenbaum: A Novel (Writings From An Unbound Europe)

Miljenko Jergovic, Stephen M. Dickey (Translated by)

$21.95

Publication Date: May 6th, 2011

Publisher:

Northwestern University Press

ISBN:

9780810127531

Pages:

296

Description

The novel Ruta Tannenbaum is by prolific, award-winning Croatian author Miljenko Jergović. First published in 2006, the story illuminates life and society in Yugoslavia between the world wars. The title character was inspired by real-life figure Lea Deutsch, the now-forgotten Shirley Temple of Yugoslavia, who was murdered in the Holocaust.

Using their shared Jewish heritage as a starting point, Jergovic constructs a fictional family history populated by historical figures with the precocious Ruta at the center. Stephen Dickey’s translation masterfully captures Jergovic´’s colloquial yet deeply observed style, which animates the tangled and troubled history of persecution and war in Croatia.

About the Author

MILJENKO JERGOVIĆ was born in Sarajevo in 1966. A poet and journalist, he writes for the daily Oslobodjenje newspaper. His books include a collection of stories, Sarajevo Marlboro, and the novels Buick Riviera and Mama Leone.

STEPHEN M. DICKEY is an Associate Professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Kansas and the translator, with Bogdan Rakic, of How to Quiet a Vampire by Borislav Pekic (Northwestern, 2005).