Presse
A brilliant debut novel from a young Bosnian writer
(...). Stanišić's story is loaded on each page with galvanizing
details, desperately making an inventory of an imperiled world. He
maintains a delirious, jump-cut pace as words flash
dark-to-light-to-dark, and sentences coil and snap, conjuring a macabre
carnival atmosphere (...). This crazy-quilt novel, a sensation in Europe, is a bold, questing work of art deeply rooted in the complex history of a blood-soaked, bone-planted land (...). Stanišić is an exceptionally talented, impish and caring writer who has walked the edge of the abyss. One hopes that he will continue to grapple with the paradoxes intrinsic to the human condition and tell many more empathic, revealing and imaginative stories full of cathartic laughter and feeling. —Donna Seaman, The Los Angeles Times |
This is a deeply poignant and yet enchanting portrayal of the Bosnian war as witnessed by a child from new writer Stanišić. He himself became a refugee at the age of 14, when his family was forced to leave Višegrad for Germany. –Financial Times |
[The] voice of a bold young Europe (...) Brilliantly cockeyed prose that borders on the surreal—or maybe the psychedelic…. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal |
The offensively gifted Saša Stanišić, who’s either some kind of freak genius or utterly immersed in modernist and experimental fiction. Or maybe both. There are shades of Joyce here, and Pynchon too, but the whole retains a breathlessly unique, charmingly youthful and deliciously foreign voice. There is some kind of innate divine spark animating this story of childhood memories and the revisions of bloodied maturity… The effect is astonishing. And the literary talent on show in this book is simply world-class. –Irish Examiner |
Displaying a stylistic audacity that is often dazzling . . . this debut novel mixes fictionalized memoir, magical realism and a Catch-22 sense of war’s tragicomic absurdity. . . . The innocence of Aleksandar, as he describes an upheaval that defies a young man’s understanding, is expertly filtered through the sensibility of a slightly older but still precocious novelist. . . . A novel rich with experience and imagination.” —Kirkus Reviews |
In Saša Stanišić’s bittersweet, musical novel about a boy growing up in Bosnia-Herzogovina before and during the war, many things happen that are impossible to understand, startlingly visual, bordering on the surreal but all too real (...) This is a funny, heartbreaking, beautifully written novel.” —Mary Brennan, The Seattle Times |
Stanišić fills his pages with a disorderly jumble of characters, stories, lists, ideas, phrases, jokes, vignettes and memories. Sometimes the confusion just feels messy; at other moments, this frustrated, frustrating roar of rage and regret seems like the only plausible response to such an appalling tragedy (...). The best sections are exceptionally powerful and moving. As the debut of a young writer, this is a wonderfully inventive and impressive novel. —Josh Lacey, The Guardian |
"How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone" is a dazzling debut novel (...). Stanišić is masterful; he combines innocence, humor, tragedy, wistfulness, and hope (...). This novel is brilliant in the way that Catch-22, Clockwork Orange, and The Empire of the Sun were all brilliant. These novels make us see the world as it is and as it could be—a vision of grotesque, surreal human behavior in war—a killing world that ‘lies beneath God’s feet’ as though forsaken—and a vision of hope and redemption, with story as a saving grace. —Mary Jo Anderson, the Chronicle Herald (Canada) |
"How The Soldier Repairs the Gramophone" is a novel in the tradition of "The Things They Carried". It is about war and stories, but it is not a traditional ‘war story’ per se. Saša Stanišić has crafted a beautiful, complex novel about the conflict in Bosnia, his homeland, which defies the conventions of storytelling, and yet keeps the reader hanging on his every word. Stanišić shows us conflict through the eyes of a child: curious, impulsive, innocent. He also writes with the voice of someone who escaped the height of the conflict by emigrating to Germany, conveying the haunting and emotional reality of those who have left loved ones behind—those who ask, ‘Why not me?’ Saša Stanišić is an immensely talented writer, and his first novel is not to be missed. —Sandra Brown, Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, AZ |
For all the fun Stanišić has with his protagonist, he makes no attempt to sugarcoat the war’s horrifying violence and lingering psychological traumas. . . . A story that reveals the lingering scars of a conflict some Bosnians may rather forget. Aleksandar’s obsessive search for Asija, the girl he simply calls ‘Beautiful,’ becomes a convincing representation of the need for survivors to find moral clarity and personal resolution among the emotional and physical wreckage of war. —Paul Whitlatch, Boldtype |
Beyond succeeding as a compelling fictional account of the very real tragedy of a town in Bosnia-Herzegovina, [How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone] is also testament to the power of the imagination—and its limitations. . . . Stanišić 's tale will remain exceptional: A gifted storyteller, he’s able to translate unspeakably gruesome history into something poignant and hauntingly beautiful. —Sidra Durst, The Village Voice |
Stanišić's debut novel "How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone" will convert skeptics with the sheer force of its emotional power. . . . Stanišić’s perfectly chosen observations refract and amplify the horrifying, maddening surroundings, heightening both ends of the emotional spectrum, creating a story that, like war itself, is too large and chaotic to ever leave simply. —Karla Starr, The Oregonian |
The organization of the book and the author’s brilliant use of language makes [How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone] an astonishing accomplishment. . . . Highly impressionistic (...). Enthralling, something you can’t put down. —Dennis Lythgoe, Deseret News (Salt Lake City) |
"How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone" is an accomplished, tragic-comic tale that magnificently captures the space between fantasy and reality. —Three Percent |
Even with hindsight, the Clinton-era conflict in the Balkans remains a confusing mess of clashing ethnic, national, and religious identities. A handful of compelling stories about this period have been bubbling to the surface . . . [and] "How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone" stands out as one of the best . . . A challenging and haunted work. —Drew Toal, Time Out New York |
Stanišić’s talent blazes off page after page . . .That his tale contains so much natural, laugh-out-loud comedy speaks volumes for the author, whose autobiographical hero, Aleksandar, ‘somewhere between eight and fourteen,’ is a talkative, precocious delight, determinedly optimistic in the face of heartbreaking losses, forever making startling little observations on life that somehow get it all wrong and yet sort of right . . . Stanišić is so prodigiously full of big, open-hearted wisdom, I shudder to think what he has lived through to produce, at such an early age, such a transcendent little masterwork. —Nick DiMartino, Shelf-Awareness |
A magnificent feast of storytelling bestowed upon one unlucky Bosnian town. Sharp, funny, humane and sometimes even magical. —Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan |
Wildly imaginative storytelling. . . .Through the eyes of fourteen-year-old Aleksandar Krsmanović, we witness a massacre perpetrated by Bosnian Serbs against their Muslim neighbors in the town of Višegrad in 1992. . . .Madcap flights of invention and comic exaggeration clash movingly with the painfully real chronicle of terror, loss, and exile at the story's heart. . . .Far from trivializing the terrible history, the fanciful style makes it all the more acute. . . . "How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone" bears witness to this horror with tragicomic intensity, reflecting the possibilities and limitations of fiction in the face of atrocity. —Ross Benjamin, Bookforum |
Diesen Roman muss man lesen, wie man Schokolade isst: nicht zu schnell und nicht alles auf ein Mal. Damit man zu jeder Zeit spürt, wie gut und besonders das ist, was man zu sich nimmt. WDR-Buchtipp, Christiane Westermann |
Deutscher-Buchpreis-Gewinner der Herzen Tagesspiegel |
(...) das wundervolle, bestaunenswerte wie punktgenau akrobatische Debüt "Wie der Soldat das Grammofon repariert" wird sich nicht vereinnahmen lassen. Es wird resistent sein gegen jede Tendenz, Balkanpunk dazu auflegen zu wollen oder der Sache einen Diskoschmiss zu verpassen. Und keine Szene oder Generation wird sich daran laben, denn dieser Roman schert sich nicht um Kalamitäten überqualifizierter Akademiker oder um Sehnsucht nach Folklore. Frankfurter Rundschau |
(...) ein hochtalentierter, leidenschaftlicher Erzähler. Jörg Magenau, taz |
Für mich gehört sein Roman zu den großen literarischen Überraschungen, um nicht zu sagen Wundern. (...) Lesen sollte, ja muss man ihn in jedem Fall, und im Übrigen ist es der beste Roman des Jahres 2006. Hessischer Rundfunk |
Trotz seines Themas ist "Wie der Soldat das Grammofon repariert" ein leichter, oft heiterer und vor allem ein überbordender Roman. Spiegel online |
Und wie Saša Stanišić die Geschichten dieser Stadt mit unglaublicher Lust am Erzählen und Erfinden in dieses Buch hineinschreibt und wie er diese Stadt dann wenig später, mit winzigen Details zunächst, vom Haß, vom Blut, vom Krieg verschlingen läßt, das ist große Kunst. FAS |
Sprachmächtig und voller Fabulierlust. Spiegel |
Stanišić hat hier Wörter und Bilder gefunden für das Unsagbare, auch die Absurdität des Kriegs, der eigenen Erfahrung mit ihm und in ihm – eine große Leistung. www.20er.at |
Wir (...) können uns freuen über die Ankunft eines jungen, hochbegabten Erzählers in der deutschen Literatur. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung |
Stanišić' Geschichte ist voll von skurrilen Menschen und sprühenden Einfällen - der ahnungslos-verwunderte Blick eines Heranwachsenden auf die absurden Drehungen der Welt, mit einer Sprache, die benutzt wird wie ein lustiges neues Spielzeug. Stern.de |
Die Welt steht Kopf in diesem Roman. Und sie steht auf einem klugen Kopf. Von diesem Schriftsteller haben wir, wie es Großkritiker gern voraussagen, viel zu erwarten. Die literarische Welt |
Saša Stanišić hat einen erstaunlichen Erstling geschrieben, weitherzig, rasant, mutig, und auch wenn er die Hürde des Deutschen Buchpreises noch nicht nehmen konnte, so sei sein Roman doch dringlich empfohlen. Es steht vieles darin, das wir unbedingt jetzt wissen sollten. Frankfurter Rundschau |
So schnell wird wohl auch Saša Stanišić nicht aufhören, eine Geschichte zu erzählen. Auf die gleiche Art wie die Drina: „Nie stilles Rinnsal, sie sickert nicht”, nein: „Sie brodelt und braust”. Neue Zürcher Zeitung |
Sobald ein Krieg sich anmaßt, die einzige Wirklichkeit zu sein, verschüttet er die Möglichkeiten, die in jeder Wirklichkeit stecken. Die Möglichkeiten der Wirklichkeit zu entdecken – das ist, was Schriftsteller können. In diesem Sinn ist Stanišić' Debüt ein rührender und schöner Versuch, der blutigen Faktizität des Krieges »neunundneunzig Bilder des Unfertigen« entgegenzusetzen. Junge Welt |
(Stanišić) fühle sich nie glücklicher als beim Schreiben (...), das überbordende, mitreißende Temperament scheint er von seiner natürlich fiktiven Tante Taifun geerbt zu haben. Eßlinger Zeitung |
Eine sprachlich herausragende, durchaus auch unterhaltende Erinnerungsleistung eines jungen Autors, die uns auf literarisch abwechslungsreiche Weise ermahnt, die Folgen des Krieges für die einfachen Menschen nicht zu vergessen. Hamburger Abendblatt |
Ein betörendes Buch, 300 Seiten prall voller Geschichten, komischer, verrückter, bitterer und trauriger Geschichten (...) NDR-Buchtipp |
Er ist Schriftsteller, hat trotzdem die richtige Frisur und soeben das beste deutschsprachige Debüt der letzten Jahre veröffentlicht. Nur eins möchte der ehemalige Kriegsflüchtling aus Bosnien nicht sein: ein gelungenes Beispiel für Integration. U_Mag |