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. "Stylish and brisk, these stories refuse to wallow in tragedy, becoming instead a convincing testament to the consolations of art." -Publishers Weekly starred review "There's an immediacy to Lejla Kalamujić's writing in Call Me Esteban, a haunting portrayal of what it means to live in a society that's been fragmenting for the vast majority of one's life. The staccato prose and rapid-fire sentences on display help to further those ideas, as well as giving a sense of the narrator's anxiety-an experience that takes this book even further into a haunting space." - Tobias Carroll, Words Without Borders "Playful yet piercing, these linked stories weave queer identity with the bitter aftertaste of the Balkan wars... Kalamujić takes autofiction to the next level." -Hamilton Cain, Oprah Daily Lejla Kalamujic is an award-winning queer writer from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Jennifer Zoble translates Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Spanish language literature. She is a Clinical Associate Professor at the Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies program at NYU.
