Hotel Sarajevo

This is the story of Alma, a 14 year old girl coming of age in a city ravaged by war and anarchy. Alma is a plain but precocious adolescent, a daydreamer who has taken up residence with a group of teenage war orphans in the abandoned Hotel Sarajevo. They live as a family for more than a year scavenging for their daily needs. Hotel Sarajevo is a powerfully evocative novel of exquisitely worked moods and images and Alma, the narrator, is a complex fictional character. She is at once a child playing with her rag doll, a sexually aware teenager, and a young woman with highly developed self-analytical survival skills. This empathetic first novel is a stunning exploration of psychological trauma and a poignant affirmation of life. A haunting, masterful work. - Kirkus Reviews ,starred review, August 15, 1997 Winner of the New Voices Award, Book-of-the-Month-Club, 1997/1998