Homecoming [Hardcover]

Natasha Radojcic-Kane (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 2002

When Halid, a Muslim war hero, returns home after the Bosnian War, he finds that his own battles have just begun. Although his village was spared from heavy combat, it is a panorama of scarcity and decay. Over the course of three days, Halid wanders in search of those who remain. Altered, disoriented, and confused, he experiences his town as a shifting landscape of new alliances and old grievances. There is no room for error in this time of upheaval, and Halid’s missteps threaten to pull him into a spiral of insanity and tragedy. This vivid, lyrical debut novel resonates with the timeless folktale voice of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the psychological intensity of Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A Muslim soldier returns to his village at the end of the Bosnian War in Natasha Radojcic-Kane's bitter, stunning debut, Homecoming. The novel's rare, unvarnished portrait of village life and its inexorable march toward a grim showdown make it worthy of comparison to Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold. But Radojcic-Kane fosters a sense of existential despair that clearly situates her story in the Eastern European tradition. Halid, her protagonist, a golden boy tormented by a crime he committed as a soldier, spends three days wandering the streets of his village, unwilling to go home and sinking ever further into a morass of old and new grievances. The physical and moral decay of the village and its inhabitants are the mirror of his own terrible fall from grace.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Radojcic-Kane tells a story as bereft of hope as the never-ending Balkans struggles that seethe at its core. The novel follows young Muslim soldier Halid as he returns from the Bosnian War to a village ruined, like the rest of his homeland, by ethnic hatred. His best friend, Momir, fought and died on the losing side, and now Halid must face his Christian comrade's spiteful mother if he is to claim Mira, Momir's widow. Halid aims to spirit Mira and the child they secretly conceived off to America. But even though he comes home with a mysteriously obtained bankroll, his halting attempts to carve out a better life are fated to end in violent tragedy. One character--the Jewish outsider Pap, who's dying of gangrene--rises above the religious feuds tearing the society apart. But even Pap's efforts at conciliation prove futile in the end. The book provides a fascinating glimpse into a truly foreign culture, but it makes one wonder if peacekeeping efforts in the region can ever succeed. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 199 pages
• Publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows (September 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568582390
• ISBN-13: 978-1568582399
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,985,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing and realistic tale from recent history., December 31, 2002

By 

David Simms (New York, NY. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Homecoming (Hardcover)

The comparison made with Jerzy Kosinsky in an earlier review intrigued me, as Kosinsky and Kane both set their stories in a rural Eastern Europe on the periphery of war. But while Kosinsky wallows hedonistically in vivid details of Technicolor violence, piling episode upon episode, Kane is more concerned with exploring what it really feels like to be caught up in such tragic events and succeeds in conveying an enveloping sense of hopelessness. She juxtaposes the horrific with the banal, as in the gypsy girl who is sprayed with disinfectant before being raped.

Homecoming is a very fast paced novel, (I read it in an afternoon); with interesting characters and a situation that keeps you eager to find out what happens next. This is one of the best war novels to emerge from the post cold war conflicts.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vivid and powerful...takes you to a place few have ever been, October 17, 2002

By 

J. Abitanta (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Homecoming (Hardcover)

Homecoming is powerful. Kane writes a compelling read with characters that are complex and unforgettable. Her incredibly descriptive style literally transports you to the homefront in the wake of the Bosnian war, giving first-hand perspective on the clash of two cultures. Kane brings this incomprehensible tragedy to a personal level by allowing us to experience the impact of such insanity on everyday man and woman. Those who are left only appear to survive.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHAT COMES AFTER THE WAR?, March 31, 2003

By 

Sesho "www.sesho.libsyn.com" (Pasadena, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Homecoming (Hardcover)

Everybody knows that war is hell. The thing people forget about is that there is a period after war, sometimes called reconstruction, sometimes called chaos. Especially in a civil war, there are feuds left over that still simmer, or revenge rears its ugly head. Such is the case in Natasha Radojcic-Kane's searing debut novel Homecoming.

Homecoming is about a muslim soldier named Halid returning from the Balkan Wars of the 1990's to his village. He finds an almost otherworldly atmosphere has settled over the place. It is a place of paramilitary police who are just as corrupt as the criminals. It is also a place of great poverty where the young have to steal or sell their bodies for money. In one poignant scene Halid sneaks up to a window to gaze on the emaciated form of his former lover as she works in the kitchen. Everyone has been changed by the war and continues to suffer from it even after it is over. Halid is going to be different though, somehow during the war he acquired a great deal of money, and maybe he might be able to rescue himself and his love from the horrible darkness of death by going to America. What follows is a tragedy equal to anything Thomas Hardy or William Faulkner wrote.

This book was an experience. It's not really to be enjoyed like entertainment. It's meant to send you looking into yourself and the jaws of war. Sometimes your past comes to haunt you and if you dont free yourself from it, it could destroy you. Even though the author was born in Belgrade, I have no idea if she is writing through first person experience. It doesn't really make a difference. The imagination can be just as gruesome as reality when it comes to war. Just ask Stephen Crane. I highly recommend this novel.