This Could Have Been a Simple Story
Preceded by 20 pages of historical context, This Could Have Been a Simple Story is a glimpse of pop culture, popular lyrics, sexual identities, & transition in the Balkans. The protagonist is old enough to remember the war, exile, and poverty, but also young enough to get information about socialism from others while enjoying her sophisticated gadgets and fusion food. Simple Story is timely in the context of the many Bosnian refugees who have immigrated to the plains. Author: Ajla Terzic, Translator: John K. Cox
2018 Midwest Book Awards Finalist for Fiction--Literary/Contemporary/Historical
2018 Independent Press Award, Distinguished Favorite, LGBTQ Fiction
Ajla Terzic is the author of this novel, which was published by Rende in Belgrade and Sandorf in Zagreb in 2011, as well as a second novel (Lutrija/The Lottery, 2009) and a book of poetry (Kako teskopisem/How Hard It Is To Write, 2004). Terzié was born in 1979 (when Yugoslavia was still a country) in Travnik, a city in central Bosnia, just west of Sarajevo. She earned her master's degree in English literature from the University of Sarajevo, where she researched dystopian novels, and has also studied psychology, communication policy, and comparative literature. Terzic has won several literary prizes in Europe, including the 2012 Central European Initiative Fellowship at the 28th Vilenica International Literary Festival in Slovenia. She also writes essays and short stories and translates widely from English, especially works by David Sedaris, Christopher Hitchens, and Camille Paglia. Terzié lives in Sarajevo, where she is a columnist and foreign affairs editor at the venerable daily newspaper Oslobodenje and at the weekly news magazine Dani. She is currently at work on a new novel, and in the spring of 2016, was named a British Embassy Fellow at Queen Mary University in London.
ISBN: 978-0-911042-89-4
Page count: 289
Bibliography
Paperback
Publication Year: 2017
