Critics' Opinion:
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Published Apr 2015
416 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Spring, 1992. Jevrem Andric is eleven years old and war is erupting in Sarajevo. As the shelling worsens, Jevrem's journalist father and teenaged brother join the Bosnian army. Jevrem, his sisters, his concert pianist mother and beloved grandmother move into the basement.
Spring, 1997. Refugee life in Toronto is bleak, and 16-year-old Jevrem and his gang of Yugoslav friends are on a rampage: drinking, smoking weed, popping pills, breaking into houses. Survival means relying on your cunning in an indifferent world. Besides, they relish the adrenaline rush; it reminds them of home.
Spring, 1998. After a year in remand, Jevrem has another three in juvenile detention ahead of him, once again trapped in cramped spaces. The only way to save his soul is to escape, and so he does. He hitches rides and as he makes his way west across America toward Los Angeles and his estranged uncle, he feels that it's a chance to leave the repeating patterns of the past behind.
"Starred Review. A first-rate novel about the horrors of nationalism, as moving as it is instructive in its historical import." - Kirkus
Rudolph skillfully conveys the pain of a wounded young man whose present is constantly assaulted by his past. The possibility of an untroubled future fuels the narrative, and the reader is compelled to witness Jevrem's journey at every point." - Publishers Weekly
"Rudolph's debut, part coming-of-age story and part antiwar statement, would be more effective with less moralizing, such as that about international players' responsibility for the Bosnian conflict. Still, this is a heartfelt novel, best in such low-key summations as, near the end, "War is a criminal failure of fathering, plain and simple." - Booklist
This information about Little Bastards in Springtime was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Katja Rudolph was born in Sussex, England, and moved to Canada with her family when she was seven. She holds an MPhil in social and political sciences from King's College, Cambridge, and a PhD in theory and policy studies from the University of Toronto. She lives with her partner and two children near Toronto. Little Bastards in Springtime is her first novel.
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