January Book Club at Barbès

Join the editors of Archipelago for drinks and discussion at Barbès. We meet on the third Wednesday of each month at 6pm. Our pick for January is Miljenko Jergović’s Inshallah, Madonna, Inshallah, a collection of stories translated from Croatian Ellen Elias-Bursać and Mirza Purić. Ellen is traveling from Boston to join in the discussion. Her and Mirza have worked for many years on the translation. 

Inshallah has already garnered praise from critics and readers:

Is there a better pure storyteller alive than Jergovic? In his books is the whole of life: little victories, great losses, deathless love and bitter resentment, histories personal and national and especially local to Sarajevo, the place Jergovic broadcasts in living color to the entire world and to posterity. Inshallah, Madonna, Inshallah continues his run of wise, wry, wild, compassionate, endlessly readable don’t-miss books. Long may he write!— John Darnielle

I often find that I judge a work by the specific details that hold my attention: a word choice, a character description. If they stick with me, I hope they will draw in readers too. Whether others see what we see in beauty is at the heart of the short story “Akrap.” When an angel falls to earth, the woman who finds him can’t prove he’s real. Her blind husband can’t see him. When the angel disappears, some family members believe the woman’s claim, others think it is a sign of her insanity. Miljenko Jergović shows us that even the highest form of beauty does not bring consensus. — Madeleine Schwartz, The Dial

Books are available for purchase here, and at Barbès a couple weeks ahead of our meeting. 

After the discussion, we’re hoping to arrange a singer to perform sevdalinka songs for us.