Bait

In self-exile in Canada after the collapse of Yugoslavia and his mother's death, the narrator of Bait is listening to a series of tapes he recorded of his mother years before. As her story is told, he reflects on her life and their relationship, attempting to come to terms with his Jewishness and his own new life in a foreign culture.

"Bait is perhaps the most unified and most balanced book Albahari has written till now, a book that, for its consistency and the demands it places before itself, announces to use the coming of age of a truly rare authoristic concept." --Vreme Knjige

"The narrator tells his reader, again and again, that were he a writer . . . he could bring a better eye for metaphorical significance to the story. But Albahari's artful meditations on the meaning of otherness will convince many that he is indeed a writer." --Booklist