Ukulele Jam

This timely, powerful novel about the refugee experience tells the story of Miki, a Bosnian teenager, and his family escaping the Yugoslav war. Living in a Croatian refugee camp, a dilapidated former holiday centre, Miki is haunted by violent war memories. Ukelele Jam tells of a life of extremity and danger that is also full of humour and human fellowship. As the conflict catches up with them, Miki and his new friends pick up girls, listen to music and have campfire parties on the beach. Ukulele Jam is the story of a young man’s survival instinct during these hate-filled years of nationalism. Meškovic’s novel is a European success. It has been translated into German, Croatian, Hungarian and Slovenian, and is being developed as a film in Germany, where it is also a long-running theatre production.

Paul Russell Garrett is a leading translator of Danish and Norwegian literature. He has translated novels and plays by Jakob Weis, Jakob Melander, Amalie Smith, Henrik Ibsen, Peter Albrechtson and Benny Andersen. Alen Meškovic was born in Bosnia in 1977, and his own life is similar to Miki’s: he lived in a refugee camp, while his father and older brother were imprisoned by the Serbs in the war.