The Museum of Unconditional Surrender

The Museum of Unconditional Surrender―by the renowned Yugoslavian writer Dubravka Ugrešić―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 & poetically.

Written in a variety of literary forms, Ugrešić captures the shattered world of a life in exile. Some chapters re-create the daily journal of the narrator's lonely and alienated mother, who shops at the improvised flea-markets in town & longs for her children; another is a dream-like narrative in which a circle of women friends are visited by an angel. There are reflections & accounts of the Holocaust & the Yugoslav Civil War; portraits of European artists; a recipe for Caraway Soup; a moving story of a romantic encounter the narrator has in Lisbon; descriptions of family photographs; memories of the small town in which Ugrešić was raised.

Addressing the themes of art & history, aging & loss, this is a haunting & an extremely original novel. In the words of the Times Literary Supplement, "it is vivid in its denunciation of destructive forces & in its evocation of what is at stake."

Dubravka Ugrešić is a writer of novels (Baba Yaga Laid An Egg, The Ministry of Pain), short story collections (Lend Me Your Character, In the Jaws of Life) & books of essays (Nobody’s Home, Thank You for Not Reading, The Culture of Lies). Born in Yugoslavia, Ugrešić took a firm anti-nationalistic stand when war broke out in 1991, & she was proclaimed a “traitor,” a “public enemy,” & a “witch,” & was exposed to harsh & persistent media harassent. As a result, she left Croatia in 1993 & lives in Amsterdam.