Just as her ancestors were forced to leave Spain during the Inquisition, Flory flees Europe for a new life in the United States, bringing with her a precious harmoniku and a passion for Ladino music.

Nadja Halilbegovich could be any twelve-year-old: she enjoys school, singing, and being with friends in Sarajevo. One spring morning in 1992 school is cancelled; the next day sniper fire and explosions drive Nadja, her family and neighbors to the basement. The siege of Sarajevo has begun.

"Ismet Prcic's brilliant, provocative, and propulsively energetic debut is about a young Bosnian, also named Ismet Prcic, who has fled his war-torn homeland and is now struggling to reconcile his past with his present life in California. He is advised that in order to make peace with the corrosive guilt he harbors over leaving behind his family behind, he must 'write everything.' The result is a great rattlebag of memories, confessions, and fictions:...