Before the Feast

by Sasa Stanisic

  compelling multi-voiced chorale put in prose.”

  —Leipzig Book Fair Prize Jury

  “A book like few others. Politically well-versed and

  stylistically a work of art.”

  —Die Zeit

  “Highly entertaining and full of chutzpah.”

  —Die Welt

  “Switching among styles with a dancing virtuosity, Staniši

  knits a dozen characters into a multi-stranded tissue of gossip, myth,

  and memory . . . In English, Staniši makes a dream team with

  Anthea Bell, who translates with a pitch-perfect ear for

  every twist and frisk of his German.”

  —The Independent

  “Episodic, impressionistic and whimsical. . . clever and funny.”

  —TIBOR FISCHER, The Guardian

  PRAISE FOR How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone

  “I love this book. It’s funny and it’s heartfelt and it’s brazen and

  it’s true. Find some space on your shelf beside Aleksandar Hemon,

  Jonathan Safran Foer, William Vollmann, and David Foster Wallace.”

  —COLUM McCANN, author of Let the Great World Spin,

  winner of the National Book Award

  “Staniši 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.”

  —Los Angeles Times

  “Madcap flights of invention and comic exaggeration clash movingly

  with the painfully real chronicle of terror, loss, and exile at the story’s

  heart . . . 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.”

  —Bookforum

  “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. . . . Staniši’s tale will remain exceptional: A gifted

  storyteller, he’s able to translate unspeakably gruesome history into

  something poignant and hauntingly beautiful.”

  —Village Voice

  © KATJA SÄMANN

  SAŠA STANIŠI was born in 1978 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and currently lives in Germany. His award-winning debut How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone has been translated into 32 languages. Before the Feast was a bestseller in Germany and won the prestigious Leipzig Book Fair Prize.

  Copyright © 2016 Saša Staniši

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in

  any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher

  except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or

  reviews. For information, contact Tin House Books, 2617 NW Thurman

  St., Portland, OR 97210.

  Published by Tin House Books, Portland, Oregon, and Brooklyn,

  New York

  Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

  Names: Staniši, Saša, 1978- author. | Bell, Anthea, translator.

  Title: Before the feast / by Sasa Stanisic ; [English translation, Anthea Bell].

  Other titles: Vor dem Fest. English

  Description: First U.S. edition. | Portland, Oregon : Tin House Books, 2016.

  | ©2015

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016006742 (print) | LCCN 2016012861 (ebook) |

  ISBN

  9781941040393 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781941040409 (ebook)

  Classification: LCC PT2721.T36 V6713 2016 (print) | LCC PT2721.

  T36 (ebook) |

  DDC 833/.92--dc23

  LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016006742

  First US edition 2016

  Interior design by Diane Chonette

  www.tinhouse.com