Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Letters from the Madhouse

Letters from the Madhouse

Dzamonja, Dario
Dzamonja, Nevena

Paperback

Series: Inpatient Press / Mercurial Editions

Biographies GeneralFiction Anthologies

Publisher Price: $19.95

ISBN10: 1965874223
ISBN13: 9781965874226
Publisher: Inpatient Press
Published: Dec 16 2025
Pages: 152
Weight: 0.25
Height: 0.41 Width: 4.91 Depth: 8.01
Language: English
An uncompromising account of a Bosnian writer's life as an exile in America.

Considered a literary icon of Bosnia, Dario Dzamonja wrote raw, unfiltered accounts of life in the streets of Sarajevo and the colorful, caustic characters who inhabited them--including himself. His unmistakable voice interwove criminal slang, local vernacular, and autobiographical inquisition to craft stories in which he often served as protagonist and antagonist.

In 1993, Dario arrived in Madison, Wisconsin, fleeing the carnage of the war that ripped Sarajevo in half. Letters from the Madhouse is his uncompromising account as a refugee in America and his recollections of a lost hometown. Spoken with ashen humor, Dario details his down-and-out life in the Midwest as he pines for the past and dodges the future, taking on odd jobs and associating with sketchy characters who amble in and out of the bars he often finds himself in. Through these incendiary short stories, Dario reckons with the destruction of his city and his life before finally resolving to someday return home.

Translated by his daughter Nevena Dzamonja, Letters from the Madhouse reels between deliverance and annihilation, rapturing the reader with vivid prose and brutal detail in a collection which marks Dario Dzamonja's English-language debut.

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