Letters from the Madhouse

An uncompromising account of a Bosnian writer's life as an exile in America.

Considered a literary icon of Bosnia, Dario Džamonja wrote raw, unfiltered accounts of life in the streets of Sarajevo and the colorful, caustic characters who inhabited them—including himself. His unmistakable voice interwove criminal slang, local vernacular, and autobiographical inquisition to craft stories in which he often served as protagonist and antagonist.

In 1993, Dario arrived in Madison, Wisconsin, fleeing the carnage of the war that ripped Sarajevo in half. Letters from the Madhouse is his uncompromising account as a refugee in America and his recollections of a lost hometown. Spoken with ashen humor, Dario details his down-and-out life in the Midwest as he pines for the past and dodges the future, taking on odd jobs and associating with sketchy characters who amble in and out of the bars he often finds himself in. Through these incendiary short stories, Dario reckons with the destruction of his city and his life before finally resolving to someday return home.

Translated by his daughter Nevena Džamonja, Letters from the Madhouse reels between deliverance and annihilation, rapturing the reader with vivid prose and brutal detail in a collection which marks Dario Džamonja's English-language debut.