The Hotel Tito, Ivana Bodrozic
The Hotel Tito, Ivana Bodrozic
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The Hotel Tito
A Novel

Author: Ivana Bodrožić, Ellen Elias-Bursać

Narrator: Eileen Stevens

Unabridged: 5 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/26/2017


Synopsis

When the Croatian War of Independence breaks out in her hometown of Vukovar in the summer of 1991, she is nine years old, nestled within the embrace of family with her father, mother, and older brother. She is sent on a seaside vacation to be far from the hostilities. Meanwhile, her father has disappeared while fighting with the Croatian forces. By the time she returns at summer’s end everything has changed. Against the backdrop of genocide and the devastation of middle-class society within the Yugoslav Federation, our young narrator, now with her mother and brother as refugees amid a sea of refugees, spends the next six years experiencing her own self-discovery and transformation in unfamiliar surroundings as a displaced person. As she grows from a nine-year-old into a sparkling and wonderfully complicated fifteen-year-old, it is as a stranger in her own land.Applauded as the finest work of fiction to appear about the Yugoslav Wars, Ivana Bodrožić’s The Hotel Tito is at its heart a story of a young girl’s coming of age, a reminder that even during times of war—especially during such times—the future rests with those who are the innocent victims and peaceful survivors.

About Ivana Bodrožić

Ivana Bodrožić was born in Vukovar, Croatia, in 1982 where she lived until the Yugoslav wars started in 1991. That year her father disappeared while fighting for Croatian independence and she and the rest of her family moved to Kumrovec, where they stayed at a hotel for displaced persons. At first listed neither as dead nor injured nor missing, her father was eventually found to have been murdered along with at least three hundred others in what became known as the Vukovar Hospital Massacre. Bodrožić continued her education and eventually studied at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. In 2005 she published her first poetry collection, The First Step into Darkness. Her first novel The Hotel Tito was published in 2010, receiving high praise from both critics and audiences and becoming a Croatian bestseller. Bodrožić has since published her second poetry collection, A Crossing for Wild Animals and a short story collection 100% Cotton. Her most recent novel, The Pit, a political thriller, will be published in 2019.

About Ellen Elias-Bursać

Ellen Elias-Bursać is a translator of fiction and nonfiction from Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian. Her translation of David Albahari’s novel Götz and Meyer won the 2006 ALTA National Translation Award. She taught for ten years in the Harvard University Slavic Department, worked as a language reviser at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, and is a contributing editor to the online journal Asymptote. Her book Translating Evidence and Interpreting Testimony at a War Crimes Tribunal won the Mary Zirin Prize in 2015. She lives in Boston.

About Eileen Stevens

Eileen Stevens is a voice-over actress whose voice can be heard on cartoons, promos, programs for English-language learners, and audiobooks. An Earphones Award–winning narrator, she is also an audiobook director and producer.


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Quotes

“A powerful tale of human resilience…Wonderful writing and personal insight make Hotel Tito a unique kind of masterpiece. A must-read testimony to the human spirit.” Eoin Colfer, New York Times bestselling author

“A captivating tale…Tragic history conveyed with honesty and candor.” Kirkus Reviews

“Wonderful, touching, and terrifying writing.” Sebastian Barry, award-winning author of The Secret Scripture

“When a really great book is written, it is well worth pausing for a moment to celebrate it and contemplate the arrival of a magnificent new talent.” Miljenko Jergović, award-winning author of Sarajevo Marlboro

“This novel touched me to the core.” Janne Teller, award-winning author of Nothing