Indie Next: The Book of My Lives

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It won't surprise you to hear I was immediately drawn to THE BOOK OF MY LIVES, Aleksander Hemon's memoir in essays, because of that charming blue alien fellow on the cover. Despite the harsh disappointment I experienced when I found out this was not, in fact, science fiction, I've come back to this book again and again because of the glowing praise it gets from readers with hearts both warmed and broken.

Here are a few quotes from reviews:

"Amuses, informs and inspires—then, finally, rips open the heart." —Kirkus Reviews

"The book culminates with 'The Aquarium,' 28 heart-wrenching pages of powerful prose originally published in the New Yorker, about his infant daughter’s battle with cancer that is nothing short of a tour de force; its terrible beauty demonstrates Hemon’s transformation as a writer and a man." —Publishers Weekly

Barbara Hoffert of Library Journal selected it for her March 2013 picks list and said, "Folded within this narrative, though, is a tale of two cities—Sarajevo and Chicago—and his love for them both, for his family, and for soccer."

And we just found out it will be on the April Indie Next List!

FSG posted a vine of Hemon signing copies of THE BOOK OF MY LIVES in the office. Lookie.

THE BOOK OF MY LIVES is now available from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.