Call Me Esteban

By Lejla Kalamujic, Translated by Jennifer Zoble

0-3

FICTION

128 Pages, 5.5 x 8.25

Formats: Trade Paper, EPUB

Trade Paper, $14.95 (US $14.95) (CA $19.95)

Publication Date: September 2021

ISBN 9789533513249

Rights: US, CA, UK & EUR

Sandorf Passage (Sep 2021)

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Overview

A daughter's journey through memory and loss in war-torn Sarajevo.

In Lejla Kalamujic's Call Me Esteban, a woman pieces together her identity by grappling with fragmented memories of her mother and navigating the complexities of pre- and post-war Sarajevo. From imagined encounters with Kafka to intimate moments in cozy apartments and stark scenes in psychiatric wards, she confronts her past to claim her present.

This piercing meditation explores themes of loss, resilience, and the search for self. Perfect for readers of literary fiction and personal narratives, Call Me Esteban offers a poignant glimpse into a woman's struggle to find meaning amidst the ruins of war and the echoes of family history. Discover a powerful story of identity, memory, and Sarajevo.

Reviews

"Stylish and brisk, these stories refuse to wallow in tragedy, becoming instead a convincing testament to the consolations of art." —Publishers Weekly starred review

"Think of Lejla Kalamujić’s astonishing Call Me Esteban as a series of dispatches from a war-torn world. . . . The histories and memories refracted through Kalamujić’s rigorous imagination, expertly translated by Jennifer Zoble, are unforgettable." —Christopher Merrill, author, Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars

"There’s an immediacy to Lejla Kalamujić’s writing in Call Me Esteban, a haunting portrayal of what it means to live in a society that’s been fragmenting for the vast majority of one’s life." —Tobias Carroll, Words WIthout Borders

"Playful yet piercing, these linked stories weave queer identity with the bitter aftertaste of the Balkan wars. The protagonist, Lejla, navigates adventures from the imaginary—a doorstep conversation with Franz Kafka, a letter to Elizabeth Bishop, scrawled in a psychiatric ward—to lethally real: 'Bullets hurtle through the air like bloated birds.' A nurturing partner dangles the hope of a happy ending for a weary soul. Kalamujić takes autofiction to the next level." — Oprah Daily

"Playful yet piercing, these linked stories weave queer identity with the bitter aftertaste of the Balkan wars. . . Kalamujić takes autofiction to the next level." — Oprah Daily Online

"There’s an immediacy to Lejla Kalamujić’s writing in Call Me Esteban, a haunting portrayal of what it means to live in a society that’s been fragmenting for the vast majority of one’s life. The staccato prose and rapid-fire sentences on display help to further those ideas, as well as giving a sense of the narrator’s anxiety—an experience that takes this book even further into a haunting space." — Words Without Borders

"Playful yet piercing, these linked stories weave queer identity with the bitter aftertaste of the Balkan wars . . . Kalamujić takes autofiction to the next level." —Hamilton Cain, Oprah Daily

"[A] haunting and unguarded novel . . . Where grief and love intersect is where Call Me Esteban takes us, to the emotions that arrive when we truly process the hardships we endure." —Costa B. Pappas, Fiction Writer's Review

Author Biography

Lejla Kalamujic is an award-winning queer writer from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Call Me Esteban received the Edo Budisa literary award in 2016 and it was the Bosnian-Herzegovinian nominee for the European Union Prize for Literature in the same year. Jennifer Zoble translates Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian- and Spanish-language literature. Her translation of Mars by Asja Bakic (Feminist Press, 2019) was selected by Publishers Weekly for the fiction list in its “Best Books 2019” issue. She contributed to the Belgrade Noir anthology (Akashic Books, 2020), and her work has been published in McSweeney’s, Lit Hub, Words Without Borders, Washington Square, The Iowa Review, and The Baffler, among others. She’s a clinical associate professor in the interdisciplinary Liberal Studies program at NYU.

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