{"product_id":"the-book-of-blam-paperback-by-aleksandar-tisma-introduction-by-charles-simic-translated-from-the-serbo-croatian-by-michael-henry-heim","title":"The Book of Blam Paperback by Aleksandar Tisma, introduction by Charles Simic, translated from the Serbo-Croatian by Michael Henry Heim","description":"\u003cbody\u003e\n                            \n                                \n                                    \u003ch2\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n                                    \u003cul\u003e\n                                        \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cb\u003eNYRB Classics\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e(2016-02-09)\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                                        \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLanguage\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cstrong\u003eEnglish\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                                        \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePaperback\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cstrong\u003e248\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cb\u003epages\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                                        \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN-13\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cstrong\u003e9781590179208\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                                        \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eItem Weight\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cstrong\u003e249.48\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cb\u003egrams\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                                        \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions\u003c\/strong\u003e: \u003cstrong\u003e8.0 x 5.0 x 0.5\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cb\u003ecm\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n                                    \u003c\/ul\u003e\n                                    \u003cbr\u003e\n                                    \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Book of Blam\u003c\/i\u003e, Aleksandar Tišma’s “extended kaddish . . . [his] masterpiece” (Kirkus Reviews), is a modern-day retelling of the book of Job. The war is over. Miroslav Blam walks along the former Jew Street, and he remembers. He remembers Aaron Grün, the hunchbacked watchmaker; and Eduard Fiker, a lamp merchant; and Jakob Mentele, a stove fitter; and Arthur Spitzer, a grocer, who played amateur soccer and had non-Jewish friends; and Sándor Vértes, a lawyer who was a Communist. All dead. As are his younger sister and his best friend, a Serb, both of whom joined the resistance movement; and his mother and father in the infamous Novi Sad raid in January 1942—when the Hungarian Arrow Cross executed 1,400 Jews and Serbs on the banks of the Danube and tossed them into the river.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBlam lives. The war he survived will never be over for him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n                                    \u003ch3\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n                                    \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAleksandar Tišma\u003c\/b\u003e (1924–2003) was born in the  Vojvodina,  a former province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that had  been incorporated into the new kingdom of Yugoslavia after the First  World War. His father, a Serb, came from a peasant background; his  mother was middle-class and Jewish. The family lived comfortably, and  Tišma received a good education. In 1941, Hungary annexed Vojvodina; the  next year—Tišma’s last in high school—the regime carried out a series  of murderous pogroms, killing some 3,000 inhabitants, primarily Serbs  and Jews, though the Tišmas were spared. After fighting for the Yugoslav  partisans, Tišma studied philosophy at the University of Belgrade and  went into journalism. In 1949 he joined the editorial staff of a  publishing house, where he remained until his retirement in 1980. Tišma  published his first story, “Ibika’s House,” in 1951; it was followed by  the novels Guilt and \u003ci\u003eIn Search of the Dark Girl\u003c\/i\u003e and a  collection of stories, Violence.  In the 1970s and ’80s, he gained  international recognition with the publication of his Novi Sad trilogy:   \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Blam\u003c\/i\u003e (1972), about a survivor of the Hungarian occupation of Novi Sad; \u003ci\u003eThe Use of Man\u003c\/i\u003e (1976), which follows a group of friends through the Second World War and after; and \u003ci\u003eKapo\u003c\/i\u003e (1987), the story of a Jew raised as a Catholic who becomes a guard in a  German concentration camp. Tišma moved to France after the outbreak of  war and collapse of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, but in 1995 he  returned to Novi Sad, where he spent his last years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Henry Heim\u003c\/b\u003e (1943–2012) was a professor of Slavic languages at the University of  California, Los Angeles. Fluent in eight languages, Heim was the  recipient of many awards and translated such writers as Anton Chekhov,  Milan Kundera, Günter Grass, Bohumil Hrabal, Danilo Kiš, and Dubravka  Ugrešić. He is the subject of \u003ci\u003eThe Man Between: Michael Henry Heim \u0026amp; A Life in Translation\u003c\/i\u003e, edited by Esther Allen, Sean Cotter, and Russell Scott Valentino.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCharles Simic\u003c\/b\u003e is a poet, essayist, and translator. He has published some twenty  collections of poetry, six books of essays, a memoir, and numerous  translations. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Pulitzer  Prize, the Griffin Poetry Prize, and a Mac­Arthur Fellowship. Among  Simic’s recent works are \u003ci\u003eNew and Selected Poems: 1962–2012\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Lunatic\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eConfessions of a Poet Laureate\u003c\/i\u003e,  a book of essays that was published by New York Review Books as an  e-book original. In 2007 Simic was appointed the fifteenth Poet Laureate  Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress.\u003c\/p\u003e\n                                \n                            \n                            \u003c\/body\u003e","brand":"Best Bookstore","offers":[{"title":"New","offer_id":45445043617953,"sku":"BBSNIJ9781590179208","price":24.65,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/2084\/5473\/files\/9781590179208.jpg?v=1764216761","url":"https:\/\/www.bestbookstore.ca\/products\/the-book-of-blam-paperback-by-aleksandar-tisma-introduction-by-charles-simic-translated-from-the-serbo-croatian-by-michael-henry-heim","provider":"Best Book Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}