
Lana Bastashic "Catch a Hare" Moscow: Inspiria, 2021
This debut novel by Bosnian writer and translator Lana Bastašić is about many things at once: self-discovery, acceptance of demons, and love and friendship that don't exist in isolation. Having long since left Bosnia, the heroine returns to the country to travel by car from Mostar to Vienna with a friend she hasn't seen in years, in search of her long-lost brother. This journey shifts from space to time: the narrator immerses herself in memories, and Bastašić masterfully blends the genres of road story and confessional. This patchwork text seamlessly blends memories of growing up and loss with the overall context of the disintegration of not only Yugoslavia but also the connections between people.
“Can you imagine,” I say, “a friend of mine from Bosnia calls me today and asks… I pick up words in a foreign language, knit them and twist the stitches in such a way that not a ray of light can break through the dense knitting.”

