Aleksander Hemon Tonight at Left Bank Books

Aleksander Hemon became an American citizen in a peculiar and brutal way: he came here on what was to be a short cultural exchange program -- then found himself stuck in the U.S. after the war broke out in the Balkans. To teach himself English, he forced himself to take work as a door-to-door salesman. And now, he's one of the most brilliant fiction writers working in English. In St. Louis, where a good number of Bosnians resettled during the war, reading Hemon's work is a great way to understand some of the city's newest immigrants, but his work is rewarding in and of itself. For instance, Hemon's inventive use of language stands alone in contemporary fiction, and though that's usually credited to the fact that he learned English at a later age and so sees and hears it in a fresh way, Hemon himself says in a recent New York Times profile that he has the same ear for words when he writes in Bosnian; he's an anti-minimalist who adores the "sensual" qualities of language. Tonight at 7pm, you can hear Hemon  read from his new book of short stories, Love and Obstacles, at Left Bank Books' downtown location (321 North 10th). While it's true that Hemon isn't that far away from us (he lives in Chicago) he doesn't visit St. Louis often, and hearing him read his own work will be a real treat. --Stefene Russell