Before the Feast (30 page)

Christine Marth, Martin Mittelmeier, Maria Motter, Thomas Pletzinger and Katja Sämann for their perception, wit, investigative talent, encouragement, and all their support for my work on this book.

MY THANKS TO

the inhabitants of Fürstenberg, Fürstenfelde, Fürstenwalde, Fürstenwerder and Prenzlau for their information and hospitality, and also to their respective museums and associations of local history for the historical insights. Their church registers and chronicles, and the accounts by Lieselott Enders of the history of the Uckermark, have been important sources for the present text.

MORE PRAISE FOR
Before the Feast

WINNER OF THE 2014 LEIPZIG BOOK FAIR PRIZE

“A village in the Uckermark, fully in the present, yet rife with legends.
In
Before the Feast
, this village tells its own story—a novel as a
compelling multi-voiced chorale put in prose.”

—Leipzig Book Fair Prize Jury

“A book like few others. Politically well-versed and
stylistically a work of art.”

—
Die Zeit

“Highly entertaining and full of chutzpah.”

—
Die Welt

“Switching among styles with a dancing virtuosity, StaniÅ¡i
knits a dozen characters into a multi-stranded tissue of gossip, myth,
and memory . . . In English, Staniši
makes a dream team with
Anthea Bell, who translates with a pitch-perfect ear for
every twist and frisk of his German.”

—
The Independent

“Episodic, impressionistic and whimsical. . . clever and funny.”

—TIBOR FISCHER,
The Guardian

PRAISE FOR
How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone

“I love this book. It's funny and it's heartfelt and it's brazen and
it's true. Find some space on your shelf beside Aleksandar Hemon,
Jonathan Safran Foer, William Vollmann, and David Foster Wallace.”

—COLUM McCANN, author of
Let the Great World Spin
,
winner of the National Book Award

“StaniÅ¡i
is an exceptionally talented, impish and caring writer
who has walked the edge of the abyss. One hopes that he will
continue to grapple with the paradoxes intrinsic to the human
condition and tell many more empathic, revealing and imaginative
stories full of cathartic laughter and feeling.”

—
Los Angeles Times

“Madcap flights of invention and comic exaggeration clash movingly
with the painfully real chronicle of terror, loss, and exile at the story's
heart . . .
How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone
bears witness to
this horror with tragicomic intensity, reflecting the possibilities and
limitations of fiction in the face of atrocity.”

—Bookforum

“Beyond succeeding as a compelling fictional account of the very real
tragedy of a town in Bosnia-Herzegovina, [
How the Soldier Repairs the
Gramophone
] is also testament to the power of the imagination—and
its limitations. . . . Staniši
's tale will remain exceptional: A gifted
storyteller, he's able to translate unspeakably gruesome history into
something poignant and hauntingly beautiful.”

—
Village Voice

© KATJA SÄMANN

SAÅ A STANIÅ I
was born in 1978 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and currently lives in Germany. His award-winning debut
How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone
has been translated into 32 languages.
Before the Feast
was a bestseller in Germany and won the prestigious Leipzig Book Fair Prize.

Copyright © 2016 Saša Staniši

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or
reviews. For information, contact Tin House Books, 2617 NW Thurman
St., Portland, OR 97210.

Published by Tin House Books, Portland, Oregon, and Brooklyn,
New York

Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Names: Staniši
, Saša, 1978- author. | Bell, Anthea, translator.

Title: Before the feast / by Sasa Stanisic ; [English translation, Anthea Bell].

Other titles: Vor dem Fest. English

Description: First U.S. edition. | Portland, Oregon : Tin House Books, 2016.

| ©2015

Identifiers: LCCN 2016006742 (print) | LCCN 2016012861 (ebook) |

ISBN

9781941040393 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781941040409 (ebook)

Classification: LCC PT2721.T36 V6713 2016 (print) | LCC PT2721.

T36 (ebook) |

DDC 833/.92--dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016006742

First US edition 2016
Interior design by Diane Chonette

www.tinhouse.com