The lazarus project - aleksandar hemon

A beautifully rendered reevaluation of a previously misunderstood chapter in the history of immigration to America--which is to say, in the history of America itself--Hemons work describes and defines what it means to be a new citizen in this land--Miami Herald.

The only novel from MacArthur Genius Award winner, Aleksandar Hemon -- the National Book Critics Circle Award winning The Lazarus Project .

On March 2, 1908, nineteen-year-old Lazarus Averbuch, an Eastern European Jewish immigrant, was shot to death on the doorstep of the Chicago chief of police and cast as a would-be anarchist assassin.

A century later, a young Eastern European writer in Chicago named Brik becomes obsessed with Lazaruss story.

Brik enlists his friend Rora-a war photographer from Sarajevo-to join him in retracing Averbuchs path.

Through a history of pogroms and poverty, and a prism of a present-day landscape of cheap mafiosi and even cheaper prostitutes, the stories of Averbuch and Brik become inextricably intertwined, creating a truly original, provocative, and entertaining novel that confirms Aleksandar Hemon, often compared to Vladimir Nabokov, as one of the most dynamic and essential literary voices of our time.

From the author of The Book of My Lives .