Kroz lik kćeri koja se nosi s gubitkom majke, ali pritom otkriva samu sebe, Lejla Kalamujić s neumoljivom živopisnošću prikazuje prijeratno i poslijeratno Sarajevo. Od zamišljenih razgovora s Franzom Kafkom do opisa stanova, psihijatrijskih odjela i groblja, zbirka kratkih priča Zovite me Esteban prodorna je meditacija o ženi koja se hvata sjećanja u ime traženja svog identiteta.
Ova dirljiva debitantska zbirka Lejle Kalamujić donosi kaleidoskopski ispričanu priču o adolescenciji mlade žene (koja se također zove Lejla), dok odrasta u Sarajevu tijekom ratnih 1990-ih. S dvije godine Lejla ostaje bez majke, a dok otac tugu utapa u piću, Lejlu odgajaju baka i djed. Kada započne rat, Lejla iz Sarajeva odlazi na selo, da bi se potom vratila u grad kod očevih roditelja. U pričama o radu u pekari „White Desert“ i „Waiting For The Pigeons“ u kojoj promatra ptice koje je njezin otac uzgajao, Lejla opisuje ratom ranjeno djetinjstvo u kojem su izmiješani zadovoljstvo i bol odrastanja bez majke. Dosjetljive zgode poput zamišljenog razgovora s Franzom Kafkom o hirovima "loših momaka" u dobi od 14 godina istražuju apsurdnost rata, dok odraslija Lejla vodi borbu s mentalnim zdravljem i svojom seksualnošću. Kalamujić nudi dojmljive slike (sova ima “guste, crne oči gdje umjesto zjenica lebde žućkaste točkice, poput zvijezda iz sazviježđa”) i u nekoliko poteza stvara simpatične likove. Istovremeno, emotivni krajolik pripovjedačice i krajolik zemlje blisko su povezani i živopisno opisani. Stilski dorađene i jasne, ove priče opiru se prepustiti tragičnosti, umjesto toga postaju uvjerljivo svjedočanstvo utjehe koju je moguće pronaći u umjetnosti. - Publishers Weekly Star Review
Lejla Kalamujić je nagrađivana queer spisateljica iz Bosne i Hercegovine. Zbirka kratkih priča Zovi me Esteban dobila je 2016. godine književnu nagradu Edo Budiša, te je bila bosanskohercegovački kandidat za Nagradu Europske unije za književnost iste godine.
Jennifer Zoble prevodi s bosanskog, hrvatskog, srpskog i španjolskog jezika. Njezin prijevod zbirke priča Asje Bakić Mars (Feminist Press, 2019.) Publishers Weekly svrstao je na popis beletristike “Najbolje knjige 2019”. Uvrštena je u antologiju Belgrade Noir (Akashic Books, 2020.), a radovi objavljivani u McSweeney’s, Lit Hub, Words Without Borders, Washington Square, The Iowa Review i The Baffler, između ostalih. Zoble je izvanredna profesorica na interdisciplinarnom programu liberalnih studija pri NYU.
With unapologetic vividness, Lejla Kalamujić depicts pre- and post-war Sarajevo by charting a daughter coping with losing her mother, but discovering herself. From imagined conversations with Franz Kafka to cozy apartments, psychiatric wards, and cemeteries, Call Me Esteban is a piercing meditation on a woman grasping at memories in the name of claiming her identity.
"This poignant and kaleidoscopic debut collection from Kalamujić conveys a young woman’s adolescence—also named Lejla—in Sarajevo during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Lejla loses her mother when she is two, and is raised by her grandparents while her father drinks to drown his sorrow. When the war begins, Lejla leaves Sarajevo for the country, but then returns to the city to live with her father’s parents. Lejla describes the mingled pleasures and pains of a motherless, war-scarredchildhood, like working at a bakery in “White Desert” and watching the birds her father raised in “Waiting for the Pigeons.” Clever devices such as an imagined exchange with Franz Kafka at age 14 about the whims of the “bad guys” explore the absurdity of the war, and an older Lejla struggles with mental health and her queerness. Kalamujić offers memorable images (an owl has “dense, black eyes where, instead of pupils, there floated yellowish dots, like stars cast out of a constellation”) and createssympathetic characters in a few strokes. Meanwhile, her narrator’s emotional landscape and the landscape of the country are intimately connected and vividly described. Stylish and brisk, these stories refuse to wallow in tragedy, becoming instead a convincing testament to the consolations of art." - Publishers Weekly Star Review
Lejla Kalamujić is an award-winning queer writer from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Call Me Esteban received the Edo Budiša literary award in 2016 and it was the Bosnian-Herzegovinian nominee for the European Union Prize for Literature in the same year.
Jennifer Zoble translates Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian- and Spanish-language literature. Her translation of Mars by Asja Bakic (Feminist Press, 2019) was selected by Publishers Weekly for the fiction list in its “Best Books 2019” issue. She contributed to the Belgrade Noir anthology (Akashic Books, 2020), and her work has been published in McSweeney’s, Lit Hub, Words Without Borders, Washington Square, The Iowa Review, and The Baffler, among others. She’s a clinical associate professor in the interdisciplinary Liberal Studies program at NYU.
