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Our man in America

ROBERT PERIŠIĆ ON HIS FIRST AMERICAN BOOK TOUR TO PROMOTE HIS NOVEL, OUR MAN IN IRAQ.

Visit www.ourmaniniraq.com

Thursday, May 2, 2013, 7pm
Los Angeles Book Launch
Book Soup
8818 W Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90069

Robert Perisic presents and signs Our Man In Iraq.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013, 6:30pm

Washington, DC Book Launch & Reception

Embassy of the Republic of Croatia

2343 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20008 

Monday, April 29, 2013.

Animal Farm Reading Series

LEGION

Novelist/Essayist Paul LaFarge and Writer/Comedian AnnaRose King

790 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211

At ANIMAL FARM Monday, April 29 at 8 pm the greats PAUL LaFARGE, FIONA MAAZEL, and ANNAROSE KING will help welcome Croatian author ROBERT PERISIC, reading in New York for the first time.

In his home country of Croatia, ROBERT PERISIC is a bestselling novelist, critic, journalist, and poet. He is often called an essential voice of his generation, and his work came to prominence during the 1990s when he began writing with a clear anti-war sentiment. Perisic's work has been translated into nine languages, and Our Man in Iraq is the first of Robert's novels to be translated into English. The book, when first published in Croatia in 2008, spent eight weeks at the top of the nation's best-seller list, and won several international awards. Perisic lives in Zagreb, Croatia. Read a q&a with him here.

PAUL LaFARGE is the author of four books, most recently Luminous Airplanes (2011), which is also a large web-based hypertext, online at luminousairplanes.com. His fiction and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, McSweeney's, Cabinet, Bomb, The Believer and elsewhere. He will be a fellow at the Cullman Center at the New York Public Library in 2013-14.

FIONA MAAZEL is the author of the novels Last Last Chance (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008; Picador Paperback, 2009) and Woke Up Lonely (Graywolf, 2013). She is winner of the Bard Prize for Fiction and a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35″ honoree, which feels less potent now that she is 38. Her work has appeared in Anthem, Bomb, Book Forum, Boston Book Review, The Common, Conjunctions, Fence, GQ, Glamour, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Millions, Mississippi Review, n+1, The National Post, The New York Times, The NY Times Sunday Book Review, Salon, This American Life, Tin House, The Village Voice, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. She teaches at Brooklyn
College, New York University, Columbia, and Princeton, and was appointed the Picador Guest Professor at the University of Leipzig, Germany, for the spring of 2012. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

ANNAROSE KING is a NY-based independent writer and director. Recent credits include the independent comedy pilot “American Viral” (Official Selection, 2012 New York Television Festival, winner of the Best Actress award for Zandy Hartig). Her short film "Crystal Sessions" starring Megan Ketch and Clea Alsip received an audience award from the 2011 Woods Hole Film Festival and was an Official Selection at the 2011 Maryland International Film Festival.

Chicago, April 28, 2013

Sunday, April 28, 2013, 7pm

Sunday Salon

The Black Rock

With writers Samantha Hoffman, Dan Libman, Patricia McNair, and Molly McNett.

3614 N. Damen Ave. Chicago, IL 60618

Robert Perisic got to Chicago for an event in Seminary Co-Op Bookstore and tonight, Sunday April 28 he is reading from his novel Our Man in Iraq at The Black Rock Pub on 3614 N. Damen Ave.

Spring is finally here, so it seemed right to celebrate and feature five writers this month rather than the usual four.

From the masterful short stories of Daniel Libman, Patricia Ann McNair and Molly McNett, to Samantha Hoffman’s bittersweet novel of middle-age love, to Croatian writer Robert Perisic’s powerful narrative about a Zagreb that is just on this side of anarchy, there will be something for everyone to discover, enjoy, be moved by. 7 p.m., Black Rock, 3614 N. Damen.

Thursday, April 25, 2013, 6pm

Chicago Book Launch

The Seminary Co-op Bookstore

5751 S Woodlawn Ave, Chicago, IL 60637

On April 25 an event is taking place that provides as vivid a depiction of the “international” in international literature as I can think of. A book launch is being held for the novel of a Croatian author about the experiences of a war correspondent in Iraq, co-sponsored by the all-over-the-globe magazine Asymptote, and this event is quite logically being held in . . . Chicago.

Set in Croatia in 2003, the book is a satiric novel about a jaded journalist who sends his eccentric, ne'er-do-well cousin to cover the Iraq War and the complications that ensue. Publisher's Weekly said "What's most compelling about Perišic's novel are the relentlessly insightful one-liners, offering poignant commentary on the unsettled day-to-day of a society trying to find its footing after devastating violence and in the throes of nascent capitalism...this smart, cutting book powerfully illustrates the horrible hangover of war." The book was one of the millions.com's most anticipated books of 2013.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013, 7:30pm

Guerilla Lit Reading Series

Jimmy’s No. 43

43 East 7th Street, New York, NY 10003

Tonight: Robert Perisic, Leah Umansky, and Dani Grammerstorf read at jimmy's no. 43 - 7:30 PM

The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series is pleased to announce that reading scheduled for Wednesday, April 24th will feature Robert Perisic, Leah Umansky, and Dani Grammerstorf.

Robert Perisic is one of Croatia's most celebrated contemporary literary figures. His novel, Our Man in Iraq, is available in English for North American readers for the very first time from Black Balloon Publishing. Robert reads with Leah Umansky and Dani Grammerstorf at Jimmy’s No. 43, April 24th.

The reading will occur at Jimmy’s No. 43 at 7:30 PM.

In his home country of Croatia, Robert Perisic is a bestselling novelist, critic, journalist, and poet. He is oft-proclaimed as an essential voice of his generation, and his work came to prominence during the 1990s when he began writing with a clear anti-war sentiment. Perisic’s work has been translated into nine languages, and Our Man in Iraq is the first of Robert’s novels to be translated into English. The book, when first published in Croatia in 2008, spent eight weeks at the top of the nation’s best-seller list, and won several international awards. Perisic lives in Zagreb, Croatia.

Leah Umansky’s first collection of poetry, Domestic Uncertainties, is out now by BlazeVOX [Books.] She is a contributing writer for BOMB Magazine’s BOMBLOG, a poetry reviewer for The Rumpus and a live twitterer for the Best American Poetry Blog. She also hosts and curates the COUPLET reading series. Read more at: http://iammyownheroine.com

Dani Grammerstorf is one of the Guerrilla Lit hosts and co-founder. She has an MFA in fiction from The New School and her writing has appeared in Playgirl and Broken Pencil. When Dani’s not writing, she is playing weird contact sports and putting too much garlic in everything. Dani lives in Queens.

Tuesday, April 23 at 7:00pm

OUR MAN IN IRAQ by Celebrated Croatian Novelist Robert Perisic: Inaugural U.S. Event with Buzz Poole

Robert Perisic came to New York this week where he held two events: Housing Works and Guerilla Lit. Reading Series. pic.twitter.com/Qo6PvqkPMG

Robert Perisic in conversation with writer & Black Balloon Publishing managing director Buzz Poole.

Housing Works Bookstore

126 Crosby St, New York, NY 10012

 ***

“Robert Perisic is a light bright with intelligence and twinkling with irony, flashing us the news that postwar Croatia not only endures but matters.” —Jonathan Franzen

In his home country of Croatia, Robert Perisic is a bestselling novelist, critic, journalist, and poet. He is oft-proclaimed as an essential voice of his generation, and his work came to prominence during the 1990s when he began writing with a clear anti-war sentiment. The novel Our Man in Iraq, available this April from Black Balloon Publishing, is the first of Robert's works to be translated into English. Named one of The Millions "Most Anticipated Books of 2013," Our Man in Iraq features Perisic's characteristic humor and insight, and examines the heart of lives made and remade by war.

2003: As Croatia lurches from socialism into globalized capitalism, Toni, a cocky journalist in Zagreb, struggles to balance his fragile career, pushy family, and hotheaded girlfriend. But in a moment of vulnerability he makes a mistake: volunteering his unhinged Arabic-speaking cousin Boris to report on the Iraq War. Boris begins filing Gonzo missives from the conflict zone and Toni decides it is better to secretly rewrite his cousin’s increasingly incoherent ramblings than face up to the truth. But when Boris goes missing, Toni’s own sense of reality–and reliability–begins to unravel.

 Our Man In Iraq, the first of Robert Perisic’s novels to be translated into English, serves as an unforgettable introduction to a vibrant voice from Croatia.

With rave reviews in The Boston Globe, New York magazine, The Toronto Star, and Time Out NY, Our Man in Iraq is the book with which to educate yourself on Croatia and its literary talent ahead of the country’s contentious accession to the EU on July 1, 2013.

Praise for Our Man in Iraq, coming in Spring 2013:

• "...terrifically witty and original... in addition to being a delightfully acerbic primer on a literarily underrepresented part of Europe, Our Man in Iraq may well prove to be one of those rare cases where something is actually gained in translation."—The Toronto Star
• "Given the uncountable billions of words they have dedicated to the war in Iraq, it might be easy for Americans to think of it as belonging solely to them. Even its possession by the Iraqis can feel tenuous at times. So it is a refreshing reminder of the new global village to read a novel like Robert Perisic’s “Our Man in Iraq,” which studies the fighting in Baghdad from the distant shores of Croatia." —The Boston Globe
• "Robert Perisic is a light bright with intelligence and twinkling with irony, flashing us the news that postwar Croatia not only endures but matters." — Jonathan Franzen
• One of The Millions "Most Anticipated Books of 2013"
• "A must-read... brilliantly captures modern-day Zagreb." —The Guardian
• "What’s most compelling about Perisic’s novel are the relentlessly insightful one-liners, offering poignant commentary on the unsettled day-to-day of a society trying to find its footing after devastating violence and in the throes of nascent capitalism... this smart, cutting book powerfully illustrates the horrible hangover of war." — Publisher's Weekly
• "With formidable insight, élan and a noir-ish relish of backstreet manoeuvres, Perišic asks how a nation can move on after conflict, how citizens can overcome the feeling that 'Whoever survived all that Balkan shit, whoever breathed the fumes of that hell, had to feel defeat.'" — Prospect Magazine
• "It is a thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking story, which, while recalling some of the comic greats that have gone before, add its own brave, quirky and refreshing perspective to the tradition. An unexpected delight." — A Year of Reading the World

www.ourmaniniraq.com