The Museum of Unconditional Surrender – $295

 

After receiving glowing reviews nationwide. The Museum of Unconditional Surrender, by the renowned Yugoslavian writer Dubravka Ugresic, is now available as a paperback. The novel begins in the Berlin Zoo, with the contents of Roland the Walrus’s stomach displayed beside his pool. (Roland died in August, 1961.) These objects––a cigarette lighter, lollipop sticks, a beer-bottle opener, etc.––like the fictional pieces of the novel itself, are seemingly random at first, but eventually coalesce, meaningfully and poetically. Written in a variety of literary forms, The Museum of Unconditional Surrender captures the shattered world of a life in exile. It addresses the themes of art and history, aging and loss, and is a haunting and extremely original novel. In the words of the (London) Times Literary Supplement, “it is vivid in its denunciation of destructive forces and in its evocation of what is at stake.”