Publisher Description

Two young women plunging into post-war Bosnia like two Alices into Wonderland . . . smart, energetic, passionate, announcing a major talent.' - Aleksandar HemonSara hasn't seen or heard from her childhood best-friend, Lejla, in years. She's comfortable with her life in Dublin, with her partner, their avocado plant, and their naturist neighbour. But when Lejla calls and demands she come home to Bosnia, Sara finds that she can't say no.What begins as a road trip becomes a journey through the past, as the two women set off to find Armin, Lejla's brother who disappeared towards the end of the Bosnian War. Presumed dead by everyone else, only Lejla and Sara believed Armin was still alive.Confronted with the limits of memory, Sara is forced to reconsider the things she thought she understood as a girl: the best friend she loved, the first experiences they shared, but also the social and religious lines that separated them, that brought them such different lives.Translated into English by Lana Bastasic, Catch the Rabbit tells the story of how we place the ones we love on pedestals, and then wait for them to fall off, how loss marks us indelibly, and how the traumas of war echo down the years.

Author Biography

Lana Bastasic is a Yugoslav-born writer who lives and works in Belgrade. She has published two collections of short stories and one of poetry. Catch the Rabbit, her first novel, was published in 2018 in Belgrade and was shortlisted for the NIN Award. Her short stories have been included in major regional anthologies and have won numerous awards throughout the former Yugoslavia. She was awarded the European Union Prize for Literature for Catch the Rabbit in 2020.

Review

Lana Bastašic's novel of two young women plunging into post-war Bosnia like two Alices into Wonderland is smart, energetic, passionate, announcing a major talent. -- Aleksandar Hemon
A confident, carefully-drawn portrait of female friendship in the fall-out of war. Bastašic has an eye for telling details which capture characters and readers alike. -- Olivia Sudjic
Lewis Carroll meets Elena Ferrante in a Balkanized Wonderland. -- Jasmina Vrbavac
Lana Bastašic . . . possesses a truly authentic narrative voice. Her storytelling is both mature and energetic, and she has set a very high literary standard with this first novel. -- Dubravka Ugrešic
Lana Bastašic's novel Catch the Rabbit is perhaps the first major book to express some important truths about post-war Bosnia. This on-the-road story about two friends who set out in search of answers to the most important questions from their past will be a classic. -- Semezdin Mehmedinovic
Stunning . . . built on themes of rediscovering the past, memories, women's friendships, language, and identity. This unforgettable tour de force surprises at every turn. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *
Catch the Rabbit is a funny story, fast and gripping . . . tender and incisive. * Los Angeles Review of Books *

Promotional

A moving story about loss, forgetting and female friendship: two women on a road trip across Bosnia head towards a lost brother and a collision with the lies they've told themselves about where they're from.

Review Quote

"The pleasure of Catch the Rabbit lies in the way Bastasic fuses delicate scenes from a passionate friendship between girls with surreal elements that convey unspoken pains and tender aggressions... A funny story, fast and gripping despite its diversions, filled with observations of Bosnian society that are both tender and incisive." Los Angeles Review of Books "This intense, dreamlike, gorgeously-realized descent into history and memory is deserving of its Ferrante comparisons." Literary Hub "Spectacular... A fantastically genuine yet gently fantastical story of female friendship... Bastasic, who also translated the book into English, is a glorious writer, approaching even familiar emotions with a unique vibrancy, and if Catch the Rabbit simply followed Sara and Lejla as they drove from, say, Minneapolis to St. Louis, it would still be well worth your time." Minneapolis Star Tribune "The narrative reaches a greatly satisfying climax, built on themes of rediscovering the past, memories, women's friendships, language, and identity. This unforgettable tour de force surprises at every turn." Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A moving exploration of how perspective characterizes friendship, sometimes to a fault." Kirkus Reviews "Set against the striking backdrop of post-war Bosnia, Catch the Rabbit is a poignant, wrenching novel about the power of memory and the challenges of knowing another person." Foreword Reviews "[An] intense examination of female friendship provides a portal into the tumultuous recent history of the former Yugoslavia... Bastasic's compelling and enlightening first novel arrives in the US in her own agile translation, sure to engage urbane anglophone readers." Booklist

Promotional "Headline"

A moving story about loss, forgetting and female friendship: two women on a road trip across Bosnia head towards a lost brother and a collision with the lies they've told themselves about where they're from.

Details